Vintage Photo Friday - RAIN

We need rain in Southern California.  We're in the middle of a drought!  If you've recently moved to Los Angeles, you might not have experienced OUR rain.  It can be dreadful.  After our summer fire season, the surrounding hillsides are left bare....no trees or bushes to stop mudslides.  That's where the rain comes in.  Ack!  Mudslides are not fun.  I feel for my friends living in the canyons, valleys and hillside areas.  Get out those sandbags.

We live on a slight hill, just north of Pico Boulevard in Mid-City.  The rain usually flows right down our street to Pico and points south.  Therein lies the problem. The streets are usually flooded south of us.  Luckily, our Ballona Creek near Venice Boulevard catches most of the water flow and feeds it out to the ocean.  There is an overpass of Ballona Creek on Thurman Ave. (Spaulding Ave.) near Venice Blvd.  This is what it looked like in 2010, after a heavy rain:

Ballona Creek at Thurman Ave., Mid-City L.A. 2010

Ballona Creek, 2010

The drainage systems in our City have been improved in the past fifty years.  Look at Ballona Creek during a severe rain storm in 1958:

Ballona Creek @ Overland Ave., 1958.  Photo from Herald Examiner Archives

Larry and I have coined our area the "Fairfax Delta" because this is where all of the water collects from points north. Traditionally, a delta is a piece of land shaped like a triangle that is formed when a river splits into smaller rivers before it flows into an ocean.  Yeah...watch those rivers flowing along our boulevards in the next few days!

Be careful this weekend.  More rainfall is expected.  Be prepared!

McCall's Magazine advertisement, 1943