Andrew Davidson-Flood of 1938

  

March 2, 1938: Los Angeles River floodwaters washed away a Southern Pacific railroad bridge. Photo taken from North Figueroa bridge. (Los Angeles Times)

      Sorry but I just realized I was missing the first section of my blog. My apologies. 

    My research topic is the Flood of 1938 within Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California. This flood was one of the most damaging floods within southern California which destroyed thousands of buildings and roads. The flood was so severe due to the increase of population within the flood plains in southern California without any adequate flood control. The flood presented the issue of flood control to many politicians and the population. This led to the increase of flood control devices throughout southern California which was initially led by the Army Corps of Engineers. My project will focus on the effects of the flood on the population of Southern California and how they reacted to the flood. This event represents how when a danger such as flooding occurs, society will respond by trying to eliminate any future occurrences. 

            I found many of my sources from databases found within the UCR library website and other databases. One source that I recently found is a collection of newspapers clippings covering the flood (Flood, March 1938: newspaper clippings, volume 13 Newspaper clippings). These newspaper clippings provide a good understanding of the immediate aftermath of the flood. The shock and devastation of the flood is evident within many of the clippings with stories of whole families being swept away.

            The second source I found was a government report that was created by Harold Troxell and a collection of government officials discussing the aftermath and the damage of the flood (Troxell, Report link). This report provides a variety of different charts that cover all aspects of the flood and explanations for all the figures. This source was most likely created by engineers for politicians to explain to them the damage of the flood. This report provides insight into how poor the flood control in southern California was in the 1930s.  

            A book that has guided my research so far is Water and Los Angeles: A Tale of Three Rivers, 1900-1941 by William Deverell and Tom Sitton. This book analyzes the Los Angeles River and how it affected the population within southern California. In Chapters 1 and 2, the authors discuss the flood of 1938 and changes in flood control after the flood. This source provides a good explanation in the construction of dams, levees, and other flood control devices.

            The article “51 Miles of Concrete: The Exploitation and Transformation of the Los Angeles River” by Blake Gumprecht discusses the effects of flood control on the Los Angeles River. I will use this source to show how the increase of flood control that began after flood of 1938 has evolved over the decades after. The author argues that the Los Angeles river has been destroyed by concrete structures and it is unlikely that the Los Angeles river can be revived.

            Lastly, I have found a report written in December of 1938 by Edward Hyatt who provides the state of California’s position on flood control ( The State's Position in Regard to Flood Control, Hyatt). This is direct response from the state on how they will be working with federal agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers in changes of flood control. It shows how the state greatly increased funds and support for flood control throughout California due to the massive damages caused by the flooding in 1938. The author also acknowledges the complications between federal and state flood control policies and how they had conflicted in the past. Overall, the source provides a viewpoint from the California legislature and their responses to the flood.  

March 1938: This image shows how all aspects of society were affected by the flooding. Los Angeles Street, Anaheim. (Anaheim Public Library photograph collection on Anaheim Local history)

            When I first began researching my project, I had trouble finding sources on sites such as Jstor or the library catalogue. However, after looking into the UCR research databases I found a great collection of sources in the “Water Resources Collections and Archives” at UCR (Water Resources Collections and Archives). This site has been a helpful tool in finding more sources on my topic. I will continue my research more into the Army Corp of Engineers and some of the specific structures they built in response to the flood of 1938. 

Many roads such as the one above made it difficult to get aid to certain areas. Flood of 1938 in Claremont (Claremont Colleges Photo Archive)