Verdugo Views: Flood in 1930s devastated La Crescenta, Montrose

Images and stories of the horrific December fires and the tragic January flood which hit Montecito have filled our news outlets for many days.

In an altogether too familiar sequence of events, the deadly Thomas fire denuded the Santa Ynez Mountains above Montecito in December.

Torrential January rains sent muddy water cascading down the steep slopes and on toward the Pacific, bringing along boulders, trees, vehicles and much more.

To date, reports are that more than 20 people have died.

The terrible Montecito flood has brought back memories of a similar event in 1933-34 that killed so many and destroyed so much in this area.

The two floods have many parallels: after a horrendous fire in our San Gabriels in November 1933, a fierce rainstorm hit in December.

The rain continued through New Year’s Eve and into the wee hours of New Year’s Day, sending ash, mud and boulders down the steep slopes above La Crescenta and Montrose.

The rain intensified on Dec. 31, as locals prepared to bring in the new year.

The Red Cross set up a shelter at the American Legion Hall on Rosemont Avenue and some foothill residents sought refuge there.

But, just around midnight, a huge wall of water, rocks and mud hit the hall, trapping victims inside.

The wall of muddy debris surged on toward the new Oakmont Country Club.

After the November fire, the County Flood Control District had begun digging a debris basin north of the golf course, which lessened the impact somewhat; but the flood left houses, cars, dead animals and boulders “so large they had to be dynamited” on the course, according to a club history written by Bob Rector in 2012.

The flow continued downhill, taking out houses and bridges in the area where Glenoaks Boulevard crossed the wash.

Below the wooden Glenoaks bridge, many of the houses on Coronado Drive and on East Glenoaks Boulevard — which both parallel the wash — were flooded and their garages demolished. Some residents drowned.

Twelve-year-old Jane Mosher Usher, who lived on East Glenoaks below the bridge, said its abutments diverted the water and protected their house.

“Power and telephone services were out, so we were unaware of the devastation,” she recalled in Verdugo Views, Aug. 19, 2005. So much water and debris filled the street that the Moshers were stranded in their house for some time.

Then, as the wash changed course, the wall of water and silt rushed on, heading west toward the Los Angeles River and beyond, leaving devastation over a vast area — from Tujunga in the north to Long Beach in the south.

The Glendale News-Press published an extra edition on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 1934, with the headline “36 Dead and 31 Missing; Seek U.S. Aid.”

A front-page bulletin suggested that the list of fatalities would grow as sheriff’s deputies on horseback searched the Montrose-La Crescenta area, which had felt the greatest fury of the three-day rainstorm.

E.C. Eaton, the County Flood Control District’s chief engineer at the time, estimated that 600,000 cubic yards of debris came down from the foothills in just 20 minutes.

The flood took out many of the bridges crossing the wash, and Eaton called for the completion of a flood control system.

To the Readers:

Foothill historian Art Cobery, one of the leading authorities on the 1933-34 flood, has a wealth of knowledge about the origins of the flood and the stories of what occurred when Crescenta Valley residents gathered to ring in the new year.

Cobery, along with Mike and Pam Lawler, wrote a book entitled “The Great Crescenta Valley Flood: New Year’s Day 1934,” published by History Press in 2012, recounting the night when torrential rain unleashed a deluge on mountainsides denuded by recent fires and a “roaring wall of rocks, mud and water crashed down the canyons, uprooting trees, tossing boulders and automobiles like toys and carving a path of destruction.”

Using “painstaking research and heart-rending firsthand accounts, Cobery paints a picture of survival and redemption in the face of natural disaster,” including the story of the devastating debris flow that claimed the lives of refugees and aid workers at the American Legion Hall and “the selfless acts of neighbors caught in the storm of events,” according to the History Press website.

Cobery, a retired high school history teacher, holds a master’s degree in U.S. history with an emphasis on California and the West.

He is a founding member of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley. Mike Lawler was president of the society at the time the book was published, and Pam Lawler is a third-generation Glendalian who grew up with stories of the flood as seen by her mother in 1934.

According to Michael Morgan, current society president, the book is available at Once Upon a Time bookstore in Montrose.

In addition, the historical society will be selling the book at Montrose’s Founders Day on Sunday, Feb. 18.

KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com. or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o Glendale News-Press, 202 W. First St., Second Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.