I can't explain how I feel about the weather. I should be very relieved about the rain. It is cold here in Pasadena - around 37 degrees F... and in Oklahoma it is 80 degrees F. But I worry about the possibility of too much water in a short time when the mountains' trees and shrubs have not had enough time to re-grow from past fires. The plants hold back the mud. The trees absorb the water. The native plants can handle the heat from the fire which the introduced weeds from urban development cannot .... so ..... what to do.
We had a hail storm this afternoon. Not as robust as a month ago where the stones were the size of marbles.
I have gone up to the mountain to take pictures of the hillsides to document the present conditions. If we continue to have lots of rain we may have mud slides. This could be very bad.
The mountains' geology and composition of sediments from ancient rivers (which created the San Gabriel Mountains) make a very porous and rocky (some rocks are quite huge) sludge when mixed with a great deal of water from rain and snow. Months after last years storms, waterfalls ran until late summer. The cold weather, this year, has brought the snow level to around 1300 feet above sea level in some parts. Last year's storms had in some parts of the mountains, 20 inches of rain! If something like that happens this season, even with all of the dredging of the bottom of the San Gabriel Dam by the County, we could have floods.
With so many housing developments at and near the mouth of the river the City of Azusa and others take chances with peoples' lives. Why do Cities allow development so close to the moth's of Rivers? .... so close to open oceans? .... so close to? ...... City Governments need to take more of an active role in the protection of their citizens.....
I learned just recently that the same area during World War II was a site of a nerve gas manufacturing site developed to deter the Nazis( "if you drop anything on us we will give you double" ).... A person who lived in the area during that time described the situation. His father was a policeman at that time and when an incident within the plant occurred, releasing nerve gas into the area, his father went back in to save his buddies.... the three of them survived.... The person who recounted the story said his father was a large man who carried one man over his shoulder and dragged the other by the scuff of his neck - shirt - to safety
What other things have happened at the mouth of the San Gabriel River?
