Harold E. Hedger, 93; Supervised County Flood Control Program
Harold E. Hedger, the chief engineer of L.A. County’s Flood Control District for 21 years who supervised construction of the extensive series of dams, drains and spreading grounds that continue to prevent catastrophic flooding here, has died.
Stan Steenbock, a former Hedger aide, said Tuesday that the Navy veteran of World War I and Army Corps of Engineers colonel during World War II was 93 when he died Dec. 29 in Irvine where he moved after retiring in 1959.
Hedger, a native of Riverside who was educated in Long Beach public schools and at UC Berkeley, joined the county district in 1919.
When he was promoted from assistant district director to director in 1938 the county had just experienced a major flood in which 113 people lost their lives and damage was estimated at $44 million in Depression-era dollars.
With financing from the Army Corps of Engineers coupled with a series of local bond issues, a complex series of dams, storm drains, debris basins and flood channels were put into operation at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. The system--pieced together over a period of several years in the 1950s--remains the backbone of current flood control operations.
Before 1952, cities in Los Angeles County designed and built their own storm drain systems without any degree of conformity.
Hedger is survived by his wife, Vera, three daughters, 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
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