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forming a half-mile wide channel taken into the system by legislative
which completely covered highways action.
and farms. Praise from South All State-constructed bridges over
The waters of Lytle Creek, which
broke over into one of its overflow March 18, 1938 the Santa Ana River in District
channels, raged through the easterly VIII, as well as the two· county-
constructed bridges over Routes 43
portion of Colton, closing our Route Mr. Earl Lee Kelly, Director and 190, withstood the flood.
26. By this time, Lytle Creek and its Department of Public Works,
tributary side canyons had washed Public Works Bld.g., MOJAVE RIVER OUT OF BED
out portions of the Cajon Pass and Sa,cramento, California.
damaged the Verdemont Subway on Dea,r Earl: While the Santa Ana River, Lytle
Route 31. Here, too, it washed out Yesterday I made the round Creek, Warm Creek and their tribu-
or buried the Union P acific and Santa trip from San Diego to Los taries were wreaking havoc in · and
Fe 's mainline tracks with sand rock Angeles going up via Capi- around San Bernardino, Colton and
and debris. Effecting complet~ isola~ strano through Anaheim and Riverside, the Mojave River-which
tion, it also washed out the Pacific returning in the evening down runs through the Mojave Desert to
Electric and Southern Pacific lines. empty into Cronese Valley and Soda
the Coast Route. Lake at Baker-was doing its share
I was absolutely both amazed
SANTA ANA RIVER RAMPAGES of heavy damage.
and surprised at the work
. The Santa Ana River, originating which the State Highway De- At the narrows, southerly of Victor-
m the mountains at the easterly end partment has done in such a ville, the tracks of the Santa Fe and
of San Bernardino Valley, picked up short time, following the storm, Union Pacific railroads were washed
new life from large side canyons and returning these highways back out and all bottom lands inundated.
reached a peak flood stage at Orange to such a splendid condition for At Barstow the river went completely
A venue, State Route 190, north of traveling. It is certainly a out of its channel, around historic
Redlands. wonderful testimony to you as Buzzard Rock north of the town, de-
stroying some 6000 feet of our high-
All road crossings above this point head of the Department of ways on State Routes 31 and 59. At
were washed out. Here the river Public Works, your associates Baker on Route 31, the junction with
spread northward, I.inundating one and the maintenance men in Route 127 to Death Valley, flood,
mile of our highway. Further south the Highway Department for waters doubled the width of the chan-
it breached the southerly approach their ability and speed in keep- nel and tied up all traffic.
fill to the highway bridge, on Route ing the highways open and North of San Bernardino, the '' Rim
26 at the south entrance to San Ber- making them passable un.der of the World Drive"- our Routes 43,
nardino, washing it out for a width such extraordinary conditions. 59 and 189-to Lake Arrowhead and
of 150 feet. There, joined by both MORE POWER T'O YOU. Big Bear was severely damaged by
Lytle and Warm creeks, it over- With kind personal regards, slides and slipouts. Saturated to
topped the fill of the h~ghway on I am plastic state by some 30 inches of
Route 26 connec,t,ing the cities of Yours very truly, rainfall, high embankment<.J settled
Redlands and Colton. Ap•proxi- and moved down the canyons, while
mately 600 feet of this fill was car- H. E. RHOADE~, President, sections in cuts folded together, clos-
ried away, but the three bridges The San Diego Clu.b ing miles of these roads.
there remained undamaged.
TONS OF DEBRIS
On its way westward, the Santa
Ana crossed Highway Routes 43, 19, Westerly of San Bernardino, Cuca-
193, and 77 in District VIII. Only monga Wash and San Antonio Wash
two of the structures on these routes Below-Views of the Santa Ana River tore out sections of Highland Avenue
succumbed to the flood-one at Norco at the State Highway Bridge on the Los Foothill Boulevard, Valley Boulevard
on Route 193, the other at Prado on and Mission Boulevard- our State
Route 77. The Norco structure was Angeles-San Diego route (U. S. 101) near Routes 190, 9, 26 and 19. These
completely destroyed. This was an the city of Santa Ana taken before and washes, heading back in the moun-
obsolete bridge, posted for ·weight re- tains, overtopped their banks and de-
during the peak of the flood. The bridge
striction, which was taken into the posited thousands of yards of debris
State System in 1933 by legislative was not damaged. and boulders upon the highways
action. The Prado structure, like that blocking all traffic. Owl Creek Wash'
at Norco, was county-constructed and east of Banning, left its banks, carry~