Take the flood and mudslide warnings seriously

Posted on 15. Nov, 2009 by kchristieh in history, local news

It’s not surprising that I missed Thursday night’s rainstorm; according to the Pasadena Star-News, the storm covered only a few blocks, but it dumped between 1″ – 2″ of rain in about 20 minutes sometime after 11 pm.

It served as a mudslide test run and a warning to people who live in the projected path of the post-fire mudslides. Mud flowed over barriers, and one man wound up with 5′ deep of mud in his backyard. A friend of mine who lives at the top of Palm Drive said the ground under her house shook when the water rushed by in the canyon below her house.

Here are some pictures I found online from the Montrose Flood of 1934. The Pickens Fire in Angeles Forest had burned 7,000 acres that fall, and torrential rains caused 20′ tall walls of water and mud to flow down the mountain. It killed over 100 people, and was memorialized in a Woody Guthrie song you can purchase on iTunes. Back in 1934, there weren’t the concrete basins to channel floods, and there were many more houses between the mountains and the valley. But still, these pictures are very sobering.

Montrose: In this view, the photographer is standing where Mayfield Ave used to be, looking down toward the intersection of Rosemont and Montrose. The flood had spread out at this point, creating a wide moonscape where houses and streets had been the night before.
Photo and caption: Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

Photo and caption: Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

Foothill Blvd. the morning after the huge flash flood of New Years Eve, 1934 was swept clean by the torrent of the night before. Right here, at the intersection of Foothill and Briggs is where Pickens Canyon crossed under the boulevard. Pickens Canyon was one of the main funnels through which poured tons mud and debris down from the San Gabriel Mountains onto the valley floor during that tragedy. It was at this point on the road that witnesses that night reported seeing a 20 foot high wall of water, rocks and mud blast across Foothill Blvd.
Photo and caption: Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

Shortly after Midnight on New Years Day of 1934, a sudden cloudburst in the San Gabriels sent a wall of water, mud and rocks crashing down Pickens Canyon. When it reached the American Legion Hall at Fairway and Rosemont, it punched through the back wall and filled the building, killing 12 local residents that had taken refuge there from the deluge. Here the Legion Hall, at what had been the intersection of Rosemont and Fairway, can be seen after the disaster, seemingly intact. In reality a portion of the back wall is gone and the interior is filled with debris. Rosemont has become a rockstrewn gully. Dirt stains on the walls of the building attest to the height of the mud flow.
Photo and caption: Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

The combination of late summer hillside fires, followed by a rainy winter has historically doomed foothill communities to mudslides. In 1933, November wildfires in the San Gabriels, chased up with a couple of weeks of heavy rain in late December, and topped off with a cloudburst on New Years Eve, caused massive mudslides in CV just after midnight. Scores of people died and hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed. This is the view on New Years Day 1934 looking up Verdugo Road from Glencoe Way, looking toward Ocean View. A couple of feet of mud has obliterated the roadway, burying the car in the foreground past its axles. The line of telephone poles marks the center median of Verdugo Road.
Photo and caption: Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

Ashes to ashes, and now to my house

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by kchristieh in animals, local news

Yesterday’s strong winds blew so much ash off the local mountains that the skies above La Canada looked like a storm was brewing. It’s good that there wasn’t a storm, as we’re not eager for the debris that is likely to flow down the canyons that were ravaged by the recent Station Fire, but it would be nice to have a little rain to wash away some of the ash that landed everywhere.

My dog wasn’t bothered by the ash. He just jumped right over it. Someday I’ll get a better action shot of him jumping like a gazelle. He does this every time he comes inside.

All of that blackness is ash and dust. It makes me wonder exactly what burned to cause it.