News of the Arroyo
Title: | Waters' fierce majesty |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2005-01-12 |
Summary: | January 12, 2005 - Star News editor Larry Wilson paints the picture of the Arroyo in storm. |
Author: | Larry Wilson |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - WASN\'T it wonderful Tuesday to wake to the sound of nothing on the roof? To crack the shades and see blue? I sat up and eyed Charlie across the bedroom in his dog place. He gave a dog smile at the fact of no drizzle, even. No Lab or retriever, he disdains the rain. Out the door and into the clear morning we went. Parkview Avenue\'s closed to vehicles because of a big crack in the pavement where it curves down into the Arroyo Seco. Runners are OK. And the trail up toward Devil\'s Gate has been cleared of the huge pine that had fallen Sunday over the trail and the fence and onto Brookside Golf Course. But where it is not now turned into a stream, the trail is quicksand, and so we headed on more solid ground toward the flood-control channel for a look. Plein-air painter Peter Adams had called me at home from down Linda Vista Avenue on Sunday to report about big crowds enjoying the view of the huge waterfall coming over the spillway at Devil\'s Gate. Because Tom Sawyer Camps\' honcho Mike Horner had e- mailed us a picture of Pasadena\'s Niagara that we used last week on Page A4, we went with a shot of Santa Fe Dam instead for Monday\'s paper. But I do believe from the way Peter wears his hat that an L.A. Times\' photog captured Peter and his wife Elaine , who makes everything happen at the California Art Club, as they looked over the falls in a picture published Monday. Tuesday the Arroyo channel was still very un-Seco indeed, a wall-to-wall muddy river. Peering into the golf course, I could see that former bunkers were now water hazards filled to the brim. Though the course was open, there seemed to be no takers. Then I heard a call from across the Rio Pasadena and looked up to see a solo player with a push cart waving from the swamp of the No. 2 course. It was Caltech\'s chief photographer, Bob Paz . I yelled across to him, \"Bob, you\'re a braver man than I!\' He couldn\'t hear me over the river\'s roar. He called something back to me. I couldn\'t hear him. We waved goodbye, just happy to be umbrellaed. Record-setting rainfall gets old, doesn\'t it? Trees down across streets, trees falling through houses, mud cascading everywhere, muddy boots in the entry hall, dangerous roads, Oregon-style ennui these are the prices we in the San Gabriel Valley have paid for the wettest two weeks in 80 years. Elsewhere in Southern California, our neighbors have paid with their lives. Particularly terrifying are the reports from La Conchita, that charming little cliff-dwelling community we pass on the 101 or the train on the way to Santa Barbara. To pop out to the village store for ice cream, and on your return to see your family being buried alive in your home when the Conchita cliff turns into a debris flow devastating. But Conchita has been devastated before by deadly mudslides. You didn\'t have to be a geologist to know it would happen again. When authorities installed a retaining wall, they never claimed it would protect lives. So the finger-pointing at bureaucrats is nuts. No one should ever try to live in beautiful Conchita again. Larry Wilson is editor of the Pasadena Star-News. His column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Write him at larry.wilson@sgvn.com . |
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