LA River watershed, 1938

The Los Angeles River watershed, 1938 ENLARGE

PAST, PRESENT, AND POSSIBILITIES

  

1800s

1910s

1930s

1960s

1990s

The above map illustrates the flooded areas of the Los Angeles River Basin during the 1938, while data on 1930s flood events is compared below.

1934

1938

Deaths

87

Damage
in adjusted millions

$73.4

$888.8

Flooded Area
% of non-mountainous area

N/A

168 sq mi
15 %

Peak River Outflow
in cubic feet / second

N/A

99,100

Olmsted & Bartholomew on Parks and the Drainage Problem

 

Data on the 1934 and 1938 floods is from Blake Gumprecht, The Los Angeles River (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1999) p 200-205 and 215-220

Flooding in Echo Park, 1938

Photograph by Dick Wittington, USC Regional History Collection, published in Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear

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