Holes in the Dike

It’s been 14 years since a destructive El Nino storm dumped three inches of rain in three hours over Orange County, but Corrine Welch can’t forget how the flood control channel near her home suddenly overflowed its banks and turned her neighborhood into a marshland.

The infamous March 1, 1983, storm caused $48.5 million in damage, flooded 1,000 homes and displaced thousands of people.

Welch lost all her childhood photos as well as the 19th century Bible her ancestors brought with them from Europe. She needed a row boat to survey the damage.

“Whenever it rains, we still think about what happened. It’s still scary,” said Welch. “We get concerned and wonder whether it will happen again. That’s the question.”

The answer is not entirely comforting.

Despite $48 million of improvements to flood control channels that were overwhelmed during the 1983 El Nino season, county officials acknowledge that a storm of similar magnitude--which some forecasters have predicted for this winter--could once again cause major flooding.

Channels from Huntington Beach to Santa Ana have been widened and paved with concrete, including the tributary near Welch’s house. But many more improvements are needed for the system to fully withstand the next great flood.

The county hopes to make $100 million in improvements over the next six years. But those plans are being recast by the county’s recovery from bankruptcy, since about 12% of the flood control district’s revenue is being diverted over the next 18 years to help settle the county’s debt to Wall Street.

“The flood problem won’t go away until the entire system is improved,” said Herb Nakasone, the county’s flood programs manager. “We’ve reduced the risk in some areas, but other areas remain at risk.”

Officials said they have made the most progress in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana, where the 1983 storm turned the South Coast Plaza parking lot into a lake and closed the Santa Ana Freeway. Workers recently completed a $23-million widening of the Delhi Channel from Santa Ana to Upper Newport Bay, reducing greatly the threat of repeat flooding in Santa Ana.

But from Brea to Laguna Beach, other channels remain potential hazards. Officials are most concerned about portions of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Seal Beach that experienced flooding in 1983. The areas are at or below sea level and can become giant catch basins for water forced south by gravity.

Along the newly paved channels, 1983 flood victims expressed dismay at the limited progress in improving the system.

“It’s like deja vu,” said Huntington Beach resident Hal Eddis, whose family lost its antique furniture collection in the flood. “I hope it doesn’t take another disaster to make this a priority.”

The county’s network of flood control channels stretches for hundreds of miles. Many of the channels were first dug in the 1930s as dirt ditches. More were dug and paved with concrete in the 1950s with proceeds from a $43-million bond issue.

Officials concede that much of the system is not equipped to handle the once-in-100-years flood that is now considered the standard for flood-control protection. Improving the system to meet that standard would cost as much as $1 billion.

The county, state and federal governments are spending $1.3 billion to improve the Santa Ana River’s ability to handle a 100-year flood--a goal planners expect to reach within the next five years.

With work on the Santa Ana River project now more than half complete, officials said the biggest danger this winter lies in the flood-control system that failed to handle the runoff in 1983.

Flooding is most likely to occur after bursts of intense rainfall lasting three or four hours.

Such downpours have the potential to overwhelm pumping stations and channel levees, causing them to overflow their banks.

That’s what happened on March 1, 1983, when a midmorning storm dumped record rains on the county. At one point, the county’s storm center recorded a half-inch of rainfall in one eight-minute period.

By that afternoon, 17 flood control channels had overflowed their banks. Much of the Santa Ana Freeway was shut down and portions of Pacific Coast Highway were submerged by up to seven feet of water.

Disneyland, South Coast Plaza and many government offices closed their doors early.

Sally Alexander knew something was wrong when she looked out her bathroom window early that morning and saw the channel near her Huntington Beach home brimming with a swift current. Within hours, she and hundreds of neighbors would be evacuated.

Damage to her Driftwood Drive home totaled $45,000, including the loss of the couple’s 1,000-volume rare book collection and 15 years worth of photo negatives.

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Since then, the county has widened the channel and lined the dirt banks with a steel covering, which is designed to prevent gophers from digging holes through the sides.

Gopher holes weakened the channels and were considered a major contributor to the 1983 disaster.

“I feel more secure, but I doubt we will ever have full protection,” she said. “When we get a lot of rain, we still gather over by [the channel] to watch what’s going on.”

Welch, who had to completely rebuild her Mermaid Circle home after the flood, said the prospects of another stormy winter have her on edge as well.

“As soon as it starts raining, you feel like moving for higher ground,” she said.

“It came up so fast . . . last time. If it happens in the middle of the night, who knows what will happen?”

The county has spent about $20 million since 1983 widening and resurfacing the Talbert Channel and connecting tributaries in Huntington Beach, said R.S. Bavan, chief of flood control planning for the county.

Six miles are completed, but another six miles still must be done before the job is completed. A pump station will eventually have to be upgraded as well, Bavan said.

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Up the road, officials are just beginning work on the East Garden Grove-Wintersburg Channel, which also overflowed its banks in 1983.

Thus far, the county has removed some “bottlenecks” at major intersections that contributed to the problems.

A third project involving the Delhi Channel, running from southernmost Santa Ana through a slice of Costa Mesa to Upper Newport Bay, is almost completed, and Bavan said the channel offers close to 100-year protection.

In the wake of the 1983 flood, the Board of Supervisors placed “top priority” on completing the Talbert, Wintersburg and Delhi channel projects.

But officials said there are many others across the county that are also in need of major improvements, including San Diego Creek through Irvine, the El Modena-Irvine Channel, Carbon Creek and Coyote Creek in North County and the Ocean View Channel in Huntington Beach.

Some improvements will be funded by developers in conjunction with new construction.

But the vast majority of the work must be financed with the roughly $33 million in revenue the flood control division takes in annually.

Of that, $4 million is being diverted to help repay the county’s bankruptcy debts.

When employee salaries and other overhead costs are subtracted, officials are left with $10 million to $15 million a year for flood-control projects.

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William L. Zaun, the county’s chief engineer who oversees public works operations, said the annual diversion of $4 million won’t cripple flood control efforts.

But it could mean that some projects are pushed back. “We are not going to be able to do quite as much each year,” he said.

If the entire $4 million was available for projects, it would have increased the pool of money by 27% to 40% a year.

The situation troubles some victims, such as Alexander and Welch, who after the 1983 floods helped form a community organization dedicated to improving the channels.

“After a disaster, there is a lot of momentum to improve things and avoid a repeat,” remarked Eddis, another of the Huntington Beach flood victims.

“But after a while it fades. Flood channels aren’t sexy, so people lose interest . . . until something bad happens.”

In Alexander’s neighborhood, residents are getting out the sandbags and plywood to cover sliding-glass doors, garage doors and other openings that could let flood water inside.

“We want to be prepared,” she said.

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Channel Work

Flood channels are designed to carry runoff from storm drains, but heavy rains can tax their capacity and result in flooding. This was especially true in 1983 when channels in Huntington Beach and Westminster caused massive flooding. To diminish the chance of similar problems, the county has studied and repaired miles of channel. The state of the county’s flood channels and some of the projects planned through the year 2001:

Improvements to Come

Main elements of the county’s five-year flood control program:

1997-98

Talbert Channel: Widen; reconstruct walls with steel sheeting

1998-99

Garden Grove Wintersburg Channel: Replace with rectangular concrete channel

1999-2000

Laguna Canyon Channel: Underground concrete box will increase storm flow from 800 to 2,200 cubic feet per second

2000-2001

Rossmoor Pump Station: Increase storm flow to 1,000 cubic feet per second into San Gabriel River Channel

2001+

Santa Ana-Delhi Channel: Replace earthen channels with concrete

Source: Orange County Public Facilities and Resources Department; Researched by APRIL JACKSON/Los Angeles Times

High-Water Marks

Some of the more notable floods in Orange County include:

* 1825: Flood on the Santa Ana River said to have created Balboa Island in Newport Beach

* 1862: Considered the area’s worst-recorded flood; most of county covered by at least 3 feet of water

* 1914: Santa Ana River overflow submerges nearly all of Newport Beach; row boats used to get around

* 1916: Four die in massive flooding that washes out most roads and rail lines, leaving Orange, Fullerton and Tustin marooned

* 1938: Fifty-eight people killed, portions of downtown Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Anaheim under water, all bridges washed out

* 1969: Five people die in Silverado Canyon when they are buried by mudslide; $12 million in damage countywide

* 1983: Intense rain overwhelms channels, damaging nearly 1,000 homes and causing $48.5 million in damage

* 1995: Channels again overflow, flooding dozens of homes from Seal Beach to Garden Grove

Source: Times reports; Researched by SHELBY GRAD / Los Angeles Times