Flooding in Long Beach, 1995
Photograph by Barret Stinson, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, published in Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear
PAST, PRESENT, AND POSSIBILITIES
1990s
In early 1990s the Army Corps of Engineers evaluated the flood control system of the Los Angeles Basin. Less than 20 years after its completion, the Corps concluded that the system would fail to prevent flooding during a 100-year storm, due to the increased storm runoff caused by explosive urban growth of the 1970s and 1980s. Although the Friends of the Los Angeles River had been advocating the restoration of the river's riparian landscape since 1986, the Corps proposed to spend over $300 million raising the river's concrete levees. In response, environmental organizations issued a series of alternative proposals and delaying lawsuits, but the threat of $2.3 billion in potential damages and the politics of flood insurance forced the approval of the Corps' plan.
The El Nino storms of the 1992, 1993 and 1995 winters demonstrated the validity of the Corps' report as flooding in Long Beach, Carson, Torrance and other low-lying cities caused a combined damage of $500 million and claimed 20 lives.