Homeless at risk in riverbeds

Dozens of homeless people have been living in an encampment in the Santa Ana River channel under the Chapman Avenue overpass, a mile south of Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

Margarita Zazuetta, a mother of three kids who are living with their grandparents, shows off the encampment she decorated under the 5 Freeway overpass in the Santa Ana riverbed in Orange. Zazuetta has been homeless for about a year, she says.

David Doan, 46, who has been homeless on and off since 2000, near his encampment in Orange.

Recently constructed water diversion ditches to handle the initial flows of torrential rains are visible in a homeless encampment in Orange.

Bill “Tattoo” LeBlanc, 74, fixes a bicycle inner tube near his homeless encampment in Orange.

Bernadette Fierro, 45, right, and boyfriend David Quinones, 40, stand near the entrance to their dwelling in the reeds of the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles. She has lived in the Elysian Valley river bottom for nearly four years.

Bernadette Fierro, 45, climbs in a tree where she has built a ladder to escape the flash flooding El Niño is predicted to bring.

Rangers Fernando Gomez, right, and David Aceves search the Los Angeles River bottom for homeless encampments in Los Angeles.

Ranger David Aceves searches the Los Angeles River bottom for homeless encampments.

The Los Angeles River in the Elysian Valley, where six homeless people live nearby.