Heavy Spring Runoff Poses Hazards Along Waterways

A bountiful spring runoff, rushing high and fast in mountain streams and flood control channels, poses a deadly threat this year to unwary hikers, swimmers, fishermen, bicyclists and even off-roaders heading to the water to play, officials are warning.

The highest water levels in the last six years are making waterways treacherous after several seasons of drought.

So far, there have been no fatalities in Los Angeles County since 15-year-old Adam Paul Bischoff drowned in the wildly raging Los Angeles River channel during a February storm.

But, even after several weeks without heavy rain, emergency officials across Los Angeles County have been kept busy saving those caught in currents and eddies that looked deceptively calm.

Last weekend in the rugged Angeles National Forest, an 18-year-old Fontana woman on a church hike fell into the San Gabriel River. The swift, waist-deep current swept her four miles away before she was rescued, unconscious.

Earlier this month, two Pasadena teen-agers fell into the Rubio Wash flood channel and were swept downstream before dozens of emergency workers managed a harrowing rescue in the Rio Hondo near Rosemead.

In March, two men got stuck in a four-wheel drive vehicle trying to cross the San Gabriel River near Azusa. They jumped into the rushing water and were nearly swept away. With only their pride injured, they were rescued by a Sheriff’s Department helicopter and tow truck.

Although officials say they do not keep comprehensive statistics, such incidents appear to be increasing, and officials say that during the coming weeks the danger will remain high as waterways run full and fast.

Officials with the U.S. Forest Service and Los Angeles County say there is only so much that can be done to prevent accidents in the vast unfenced regions of the forested areas or even along flood control channels whose fenced boundaries are easily breached.

“People have to use common sense and . . . realize we are not a city park,” said Randi Jorgensen, a spokeswoman for the sprawling Angeles National Forest. “Everything is not manicured Disneyland-style. There are dangers.”

“It’s like keeping flies away from food,” said Donald Nichols, the assistant public works director in charge of the county’s 470 miles of flood control channels.

Part of the problem, authorities say, is that during the drought most streams and flood channels posed little danger. Now, with a winter’s worth of drenching rains, that has changed.

No longer can children safely float on inner tubes along streams in the picturesque San Gabriel Mountains, as they have become accustomed to doing during the drought. Nor can hikers easily cross rivers, nor can bikers casually explore the waters of flood control channels.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Borngrebe, who oversees the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team, said the East Fork of the San Gabriel River is a good example. In past years “a little kid could cross it without a problem,” he said. “Now . . . if you lose your footing, you’re in deep trouble.”

In addition, rescue officials said that the public seems to have the false impression that the danger only exists when it’s pouring rain.

The deceptiveness of rapid mountain waters only a few feet deep, he said, may have been to blame last Saturday when 18-year-old Gail Ortega of Fontana slipped when crossing the East Fork.

After Ortega fell, she quickly was swept downriver. “Some of those kids ran nearly four miles trying to catch her,” he said. When rescue workers eventually reached her, she was unconscious. On Friday she was listed in critical condition at Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in Glendora.

Forest Service, Sheriff’s Department and County Fire Department officials say they do not have records on the number of similar cases that occur in Angeles National Forest.

But Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Bill Masten, who is coordinating a new prevention-oriented effort to improve swift-water rescues, estimates that there is an annual average of 100 reports of someone in trouble in the county’s flood control channels alone. Forty end up as confirmed victims, including about six a year who drown. Most of the victims are young, from toddlers to teen-agers, he said.

“It looks like a ball to be out there. But it’s like the tail of the dragon. . . . It’s a life-grabbing monster,” Masten said. “Unless you can bench press 540 pounds, you just don’t come back up.”