Article on Dam Releases a Flood of Memories

Re “Serene Hilltop Marks Site of Landmark Disaster,” Dec. 11: I remember the Baldwin Hills dam disaster vividly.

My mother had taken me to Hody’s Cafeteria, around Jefferson Boulevard and La Brea Avenue. We had just finished eating a late lunch when we noticed police in the middle of the street and a flow of water coming down La Brea. But as we drove off, my mother dutifully allowed me to turn the radio to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast, instead of a news channel, so I could hear the end of “Gotterdammerung,” because, at age 15, I was already an avid opera lover. The broadcast was almost over; the music indicating the Rhine River overflowing its banks and engulfing the world was playing as we drove up our driveway in Culver City, about a 10-minute drive from the cafeteria.

My mother rushed in and turned on the TV to see what the commotion on La Brea had been about. To our horror, the TV showed Hody’s up to its rafters in water because the dam in the hills above the restaurant had burst with, according to The Times’ story, 292 million gallons of water surging out of a 75-foot gash. I’ve always wondered if anyone else who experienced the flood was listening to “Gotterdammerung” from the Met, as I was, and could appreciate the irony.

Rickard Roudebush

Sherman Oaks