Baldwin Hills Dam Disaster and Flood
This article is a few years old, but I am posting it, because a worse disaster such as this may be imminent.
Posted on 02/13/2017 2:25:32 PM PST by nickcarraway
Ten years ago, for the 40th anniversary of the Dec. 14, 1963 Baldwin Hills Dam collapse, Los Angeles Times staff writer Bob Pool reported:
The Baldwin Hills Dam collapsed with the fury of a thousand cloudbursts, sending a 50-foot wall of water down Cloverdale Avenue and slamming into homes and cars on Dec. 14, 1963.
Five people were killed. Sixty-five hillside houses were ripped apart, and 210 homes and apartments were damaged. The flood swept northward in a V-shaped path roughly bounded by La Brea Avenue and Jefferson and La Cienega boulevards.
The earthen dam that created a 19-acre reservoir to supply drinking water for West Los Angeles residents ruptured at 3:38 p.m. As a pencil-thin crack widened to a 75-foot gash, 292 million gallons surged out.
It took 77 minutes for the lake to empty. But it took a generation for the neighborhood below to recover. And two decades passed before the Baldwin Hills ridge top was reborn.
The cascade caused an unexpected ripple effect that is still being felt in Los Angeles and beyond.
It foreshadowed the end of urban-area earthen dams as a major element of the Department of Water and Power’s water-storage system. It prompted a tightening of Division of Safety of Dams control over reservoirs throughout the state.
The live telecast of the collapse from a KTLA-TV Channel 5 helicopter is considered the precursor to airborne news coverage that is now routine everywhere.
The dam break was Richard N. Levine’s big break, too.
Levine was a 17-year-old Dorsey High School photography student who was doing homework at his house two miles from the dam when he heard one of the KTLA reports by helicopter pilot Don Sides and cameraman Lou Wolf.
He grabbed his own camera, jumped into his 1948 Plymouth and hurried toward the
(Excerpt) Read more at framework.latimes.com ...
Baldwin Hills Dam Disaster and Flood
This article is a few years old, but I am posting it, because a worse disaster such as this may be imminent.
I think I know why, too.
That video — and the event itself — have been memory-holed by the fake-news MSM because it makes their little god "government" look bad, and we cannot have that.
It would have been an anachronism, as Chinatown is set in the 1930’s...
Let’s not forget the Johnstown flood when that dam collapsed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood
Chinatown was inspired by the St. Francis Dam collapse in 1928, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 425 people.
Wikipedia.
Thank you!
I grew up in L.A. & didn’t hear of it either...
Sad that the Feds will not provide Sanctuary State with FEMA funds. Let’s see how long they last.
I remember the disaster. It was a big news event.
In 1976, I had a job making deliveries for an entrepreneur who had a lot of clients in Baldwin Hills. At the time, the area consisted of apartment houses occupied by middle-class blacks and was known as the Jungle because of the lush vegetation that abounded.
However, the area went downhill. Following the “Rodney King Riot” of 1992, the shopping mall adjacent to the apartment complexes looked like Tokyo or Berlin in 1945. The Thrifty drug store, where I had purchased ice cream cones in 1976 was a burned-out shell. Today, the neighborhood is said to be the turf of the LA branch of the Blackstone Rangers, a Chicago street gang.
Where are all the complaints about Climate Change causing this?
I don’t understand, I’m so confused.
The Rodney King rioters sure did a good job of fouling their own nests.
I remember that. Stan Chambers (KTLA-5) was interviewing the head of the water department with a live shot of the leaking dam on TV. The head of the water department said “that dam will never break.” As soon as the words left his mouth the dam broke wide open.
I remember it well. Fascinating viewing at the time. A real tragedy.
I remember it happening, watched it on tv I was all of 8 at the time. lived in the west san fernando valley
“It would have been an anachronism, as Chinatown is set in the 1930’s...”
Doesn’t it refer to the Owens Valley, and the San Fernando Valley?
And it is a good thing to keep in mind that the Oroville lake we are dealing with now is bigger than the St Francis. Not double, but instead, ten times bigger.
If it were to have the same sort of event, bye-bye north Sacramento.
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