River Rescue

Regardless of how El Nino shapes up--whether Los Angeles has a 100-year flood or not-- city and county fire departments are gearing up as usual for swift-water rescues. Throughout the year, each department's swift-water team undergoes training for rescuing victims from the county's waterways. An average of 6 drownings a year occur in the county's more than 600 miles of flood-control channels.

The river officially begins in Canoga Park. As it travels southeast, several creeks flow from the mountains through channels into the river, down to the Valley's lowest point, the Sepulveda Dam. Located about seven miles downstream from the start of the river, the dam catches any water that hasn't soaked into the ground from a 152-square-mile area. And when it rains heavily, the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin does what it was designed to do--it floods, keeping runoff water from flooding freeways and populated areas.

When the river was all natural, it flooded many times. After a devastating flood in 1938, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lined the river with concrete and built Sepulveda Dam. Now only about nine miles of river are unpaved. Some stretches overgrown with vegetation are being cleared by the Department of Public Works and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in preparation for a heavy rainy season.

Because of the area's topography, water moves quickly down the steep mountains that surround the Valley, filling the river and its diversion channels. When that happens and someone falls in a channel, the city and county fire department swift-water rescue teams respond.

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Los Angeles River

When flowing, the L.A. River's water is mostly runoff from mountains and springs. The river isn't meant for recreation--it's a concrete channel designed to move water out of the Valley and down to the ocean.

It's All Downhill

The Los Angeles River drops about 800 feet in just over 50 miles--a slope much greater than the Mississippi River, which descends 1,600 feet over its 2,300-mile course.

Vertical Wall:

Angle of channel walls varies from 30 degrees to 90 degrees. Low-head dams are vertical walls along stretches where there is a drop in elevation. These are especially dangerous because of the "hydraulic" effect caused when the current reverses and recirculates over the same area. Firefighters call low-head dams "death traps" or "drowning machines" because it is nearly impossible for a victim to escape.

Sloping Wall: