La Cañada History: El Niño storms pound the city, bringing 18.1 inches of rain to La Cañada Flintridge in just one month

Ten Years Ago

The Amgen Tour of California sped through La Cañada Flintridge toward the Rose Bowl, drawing residents and visitors from nearby communities to watch the cyclists race around corners and past homes on a rainy Feb. 24, 2008, the final leg, Stage 7, of the eight-day event. The Tour was first held in 2006; the 2008 event, was the first to include this city in the race. George Hincapie won Stage 7 while the overall winner for that year’s contest was Levi Leipheimer.

Twenty Years Ago

On Feb. 23, 1998, then-City Manager Gabrielle Pryor declared local emergency after a series of El Nino-induced storms pounded La Cañada Flintridge. Pryor said there were mudslides affecting several streets, including Hampstead Road, Foothill Boulevard, upper Gould Avenue and La Forest Drive. The last of the February storms brought the rainfall total for that month alone to 18.1 inches.

Thirty Years Ago

In the wake of a fierce windstorm that hit the Foothills, La Cañada Flintridge resident Christer Ohlsson and his family were reportedly grateful to have escaped a fire that destroyed their Ocean View Boulevard home.

Forty Years Ago

“Norman, Is That You?” by Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick was performed by the La Cañada Players on stage before a dinner audience at La Cañada Country Club 40 years ago this week. The play first opened on Broadway in 1970 and was turned into a film in 1976.

Fifty Years Ago

In a crime that sent shock waves throughout the community, 60-year-old Marjorie Menefee was murdered by one of two gunmen who burst into the Rockland Place apartment she shared with her husband, Jerry “Shorty” Menefee, the well-known, longtime owner of Bow-Tie Cleaners in La Cañada. While one suspect forced Shorty Menefee to travel with him by car to the Foothill Boulevard cleaning establishment to empty the safe, the other man stayed at the apartment watching Marjorie and a visitor. When Marjorie, bound by the suspects, asked to be moved slightly so she could be more comfortable, the gunman watching her shot her in cold blood, then fled the scene.

Sixty Years Ago

The La Cañada Chamber of Commerce agreed to be a clearinghouse for the formation of a school study committee, with a view toward complete consolidation of kindergarten through 12th grade under one home-rule school district. At the time, only the K through sixth-grade programs were overseen by a La Cañada school board; the other grades were then under the jurisdiction of Pasadena Unified School District.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.