I was living near Seal Beach in 1982-83 when El Niño came by and destroyed the Seal Beach pier. That was the most devastating one I’ve experienced. We moved to AZ in 1996 so none of the others were particularly memorable for me.
82-83 was really bad, especially in the Santa Cruz mountains where property damage was extensive and 10 people died in a mudslide at Love Creek. 25 inches of rain in 36 hours!
I was living in Santa Barbara at that time and after “the big one” my friends and I were able to walk from the beach to the harbor breakwater - it took them months to dredge out the channel. In 97 I lived in the Santa Cruz mountains and had to evacuate as my riverside neighborhood flooded and several homes were lost. In 16-17 I got to work from home a lot because every route through the Santa Cruz mountains was closed from San Francisco to Salinas.
Given that I’ve experienced three Grande El Niños in my 53 years in CA I hardly see them as “relatively rare”. Just another scare tactic to make readers think the climate sky is falling...again.