LA is washing away. Biggest storm in 20 years

[Paladin]

The lowest low pressure to hit San Diego in 30 years. Expecting sustained winds of 40+ mph at the coast in a few hours. I had to move some of my patio plants.

 

[BoomerD]

What's stupid is that a lot of the rain isn't being collected. Many of the storm drains just empty out to the ocean.

I see these kinds of comments all the time. Where will you collect it? I'm normally 100% in favor of building dams, be it for flood control, water reservoirs, and/or power generation, but where? Keep in mind, SoCal tends to be pretty earthquake-rich... What land will you flood? Will you take it away from the citizens who already own it and farm it? Will you take it away from some big business entity who maybe has a factory on it? Will you displace entire towns built in the valley you want to flood?

It's not as easy as saying, "OMG! They're letting all that rain run into the ocean!"

 

[lxskllr]

I see these kinds of comments all the time. Where will you collect it? I'm normally 100% in favor of building dams, be it for flood control, water reservoirs, and/or power generation, but where? Keep in mind, SoCal tends to be pretty earthquake-rich... What land will you flood? Will you take it away from the citizens who already own it and farm it? Will you take it away from some big business entity who maybe has a factory on it? Will you displace entire towns built in the valley you want to flood?

It's not as easy as saying, "OMG! They're letting all that rain run into the ocean!"

I'd probably try to inject it into the ground. It's sinking ~1'/year due to extracting water. Put some of it back.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I see these kinds of comments all the time. Where will you collect it? I'm normally 100% in favor of building dams, be it for flood control, water reservoirs, and/or power generation, but where? Keep in mind, SoCal tends to be pretty earthquake-rich... What land will you flood? Will you take it away from the citizens who already own it and farm it? Will you take it away from some big business entity who maybe has a factory on it? Will you displace entire towns built in the valley you want to flood?

It's not as easy as saying, "OMG! They're letting all that rain run into the ocean!"

Nothing good has ever come out of Simi Valley, start there.

And that whole area is riddled with mountains canyons with next to no population. You could build half a dozen small collection dams without displacing anything but sheep. Like most things in California, it's environmental politics. You can't move a shovel of earth or pour a cubic foot of concrete without fighting about it for 10 years in court first.

 

[BoomerD]

Nothing good has ever come out of Simi Valley, start there.

And that whole area is riddled with mountains canyons with next to no population. You could build half a dozen small collection dams without displacing anything but sheep. Like most things in California, it's environmental politics. You can't move a shovel of earth or pour a cubic foot of concrete without fighting about it for 10 years in court first.

So...you build half a dozen..hell...a full dozen of those small collection dams...how do you get the excess water to them from some other area? Unfortunately, it will take way more energy...and cost a metric fuck-ton (an actual verifiable amount) to build the infrastructure needed to move that excess water...especially since these kinds of storms only happen once every decade...or less.
Then, what about the 3" or more that's predicted to his LA and San Diego that's not in the mountains? Controlling floods caused by sporadic heavy rains isn't as easy as "Build some dams and catch it for later."

 

[shortylickens]

THATS WHAT YOU GET FOR LETTING OFF O.J!!!

 

[Ns1]

Additional water collection was one of Jerry Brown's answers to solving the drought long term

 

[IEC]

Additional water collection was one of Jerry Brown's answers to solving the drought long term

Governor Moonbeam needs to invest more in infrastructure for that to work out. Especially dams...

 

[esquared]

There was an article written a couple years ago why more dams aren't being built, in California.

An argument is that the good sites for collection have already been taken. Its the first of four reasons, in the article.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/08/...hy-doesnt-california-build-big-dams-any-more/

Dam opponents say this, and I don't know of the accuracy/dam capacity of the five proposed projects.

"Dam opponents say none of the big projects make economic sense. If the five most often talked-about projects were built, the cost would be $9 billion and the average annual water yield would be only 400,000 acre feet — 1 percent of California’s total annual use — said Ron Stork, with Friends of the River."

400,000 acre feet isn't much. Shasta is over 11X that in capacity at 4,532,000 ac/ft and Oroville is nearly 8X that capacity at 3,163,000 ac/ft.

 

[Riverhound777]

My area is at the tail end of the storm now with about 4 inches since last night. Starting to get flooding reports, two of my clients are having power issues and another is under evac warning due to flooding. LA is getting hammered right now, so flooding will start there in an hour or two i'm guessing.

 

[Raduque]

Hooray! Now, if only the rest of Commiefornia will follow LA into the ocean.

 

[Stopsignhank]

Starting to tail off here. I went to the beach at lunch just to see it rain on the ocean. High winds and surf so it was pretty cool.

 

[Ns1]

Flooding over the sidewalk in some parts of west SFV. Parking lot to Costco slammed anyway. Rain might keep people off the freeways, but not Costco.

 

[deadlyapp]

Piers in Hermosa and Manhattan are closed, but that's typical.

I have to drive into DTLA today for a wedding rehearsal dinner. Last big storm we had the entire 110 was closed, so I'm not really looking forward to that potentially happening.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Major damage reported.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'm in Palm Springs. No rain here yet.

 

[Imp]

Good luck to that dam that was on the verge of failing last week.

About water collection... it's gotta be cheaper than building more desalination plants and running them 24/7.

 

[Anubis]

the end inc

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Its just rain, only reason its such a big deal is because of how good or bad its been for 4 years. Heck, even though its winter I have seen an ice cream truck come through the neighborhood several times in the last few weeks between storms.

 

[Imp]

Its just rain, only reason its such a big deal is because of how good or bad its been for 4 years. Heck, even though its winter I have seen an ice cream truck come through the neighborhood several times in the last few weeks between storms.

Our "summer" ice cream truck starts coming by in spring when it's above 10 C (45 F?) which I think is the low-point of an LA winter.

P.S. I think clocks change forward in a few weeks. Awesome because it's still somewhat bright around 5:30pm now.

 

[Stopsignhank]

Well I just got home and my pool is full.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Just got a flash flood alert on my phone, the end is near.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I see these kinds of comments all the time. Where will you collect it? I'm normally 100% in favor of building dams, be it for flood control, water reservoirs, and/or power generation, but where? Keep in mind, SoCal tends to be pretty earthquake-rich... What land will you flood? Will you take it away from the citizens who already own it and farm it? Will you take it away from some big business entity who maybe has a factory on it? Will you displace entire towns built in the valley you want to flood?

It's not as easy as saying, "OMG! They're letting all that rain run into the ocean!"

Could refill lakes etc that have been empty since the droughts started. Build dams etc to keep it in and bring the levels to their normal level again.

 

[Ns1]

5 closed at Lankershim (Sun Valley). It's 5:30pm. GGPO Los Angeles.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Just so we are clear, if none of us make it, NO YOU CANT HAVE OUR STUFF.