Wake of the Flood: One Year Later, Laguna Beach Remembers

What were you doing one year ago this morning?

Were you panicking because you were trying to save your business? Were you helping to rescue stranded people from Laguna Canyon?

Or were you one of those stranded people?

Today is the one-year anniversary of the brutal Laguna Beach flood that caused over $12 million in damages, to some 90 homes and 70 businesses. Laguna Beach Patch spoke with several people who were directly involved with that day's chaotic events. We'll let their own words speak for themselves ...

Also included here at the end are links to some of our flood coverage that day, as well as a few follow-up pieces. We're also including a PDF file, suitable for downloading, of the report issued last month by the Laguna Canyon Flood Mitigation Task Force, which was formed in the flood's aftermath. It's a highly informative and detailed 60-page read, if just from a historical standpoint—all 14 major Laguna Canyon floods dating back to 1937 are recounted, as well as some fascinating pieces of minutia—for instance, did you know that a 60-foot-high, 600-foot-long dam was once proposed to control canyon flooding?

We hope you'll add your stories and comments to the ones we've gathered here ...

THE ARTIST: OLIVIA BATCHELDER

Batchelder is a painter and silk artist who lives in the Sun Valley Drive neighborhood.

We were awakened by the rain—it was pounding so hard, I thought the roof would break. The water was coming off the hill in gushes, and kept getting deeper and deeper until it was above our knees, about two feet. But some places in the neighborhood had five or seven feet of water.

My garage had the most damage—it was bashed in on two sides by the water, trees, rocks and mud. My art supplies were in there, and I lost all of them, my tools, my equipment. And my archival work—that hurt the most. You can’t replace the past.

There were about eight months of tears, tears and tears. I just couldn’t get out of that emotional space, but I'm out of it now. I’m grateful for the people who came and cleaned my bathroom and brought me lunches and dinners, many times. People dug out my garage and gave me grants, several grants, and that turned everything around for me, that ongoing help.

But my way of working was destroyed and had to be reinvented. There used to be a dump back in the 1950s above the hill where the mud came from, so I incorporated pieces of the glass and metal that got washed into my yard and used them in a series of paintings, which I call “Artifacts from the Flood.” I sold two over the summer.

Since then, I’ve done another series. One evening, after my kitchen got put back together and when my living situation was clean and healthy again, I started singing. That’s when I knew that my happiness had returned. And that’s the title of one painting—“The Return of Happiness.” I haven’t been sad since.

THE DOWNTOWN BUSINESSWOMAN: HEIDI MILLER

Miller owns on Coast Highway, as well as the around the corner.

There was flooding before, but never like this. Part of the problem was that it was high tide, so the water hit the ocean and kept crashing back up, like a whirlpool.

It was a huge hit. I had to throw away a $30,000 wall of cashmere—you can’t sell it when you’ve got sewage and crap and chemicals all over everything. Even clothes that were a foot off the ground got ruined, because when the water rose to where they were, they would soak up the water and the water would travel up the garments. If I knew that would have happened, I would have picked everything up off the floor.

You don’t remember what you’ve lost. For four or five months, I would go to get something, like business cards, and then I’d remember they were gone. And it’s not just cards, it’s my iPod dock, it’s my credit card machine, it’s rugs …

They found my magazines from the newsstand two miles away. That business is not back up to normal, at all. You know what we get? "Heidi, we’re so glad you’re open again …" and then they don’t buy anything. If everybody bought one magazine, that would be great, that’s all we need. It’s a labor of love, and I just want to break even. If I do that, I’ll keep it up forever, but people will stand there and read a magazine cover to cover, then put it back. Then if you say something to them, they get angry with you. Someone the other day dumped their coffee and ruined about $60 worth of magazines, after we asked them to put their coffee down. You don’t want to be nasty, so what do you do? We need the support.

But I’m one of these glass-is-half-full types. I saw how many really good friends I have. The city was wonderful, they were quick and got the roads cleared. I’m grateful to the fire department and the city officials—they just put on their raincoats and came down. 

THE SURVIVOR: KIM JENSEN

Jensen lived in Laguna Canyon with her then-partner and three young children. Of all the flood stories, hers is among the most harrowing: The flood waters rose to about six feet in their home, the children were floating on mattresses, and they all barely escaped to safety. Jensen is persuing litigation against the city as well as one of her neighbors, Jerry Moushey, who she contends is partially responsible for the flood when four illegal storage containers he had on his nearby property created a damming effect when they were washed into the creek, which caused water levels to rise. She currently lives in a San Juan Capistrano moblile home park.

We were trapped in our house watching dead animals float by. I relive that nightmare night and day, and I sleep very little.

The city knew about Moushey's storage containers for nine years, and they did nothing. The only reason I’m litigating is that I don’t want it to happen to anyone else ever again. On top of it all, I received a $500 citation from the city for having an unsightly property. Why did the city get on my ass, but they let Moushey have illegal containers for nine years?

I do have to say that [Laguna Beach community leader] Ann Quilter was a great benefit. She appeared in my yard and set me up with a great network of people.

THE CANYON BUSINESSMAN: BEN PLONSKI

Plonski is the owner of .

I remember waking up in the morning and thinking it wasn’t that bad, because it didn’t really rain that hard where I live in Mission Viejo. Then I turned on Channel 5 and … my heart just sank.

It looked like a bomb hit. Our main worry was the fish. Every pond was completely brown. We lost a couple hundred fish, about $30-40,000 worth. We actually had people emailing us pictures of our koi that they found on the beach. There are actually some fish in the creek behind us still …

People say different things. They blame the flood on the toll road, on Aliso Viejo, on those storage containers that blocked the creek. But Laguna Canyon, it’s a flood zone in a big funnel, and all the water comes down through here. We can take two inches of rain in nine hours, but we can’t take nine inches in two hours. The whole canyon was in shock.

It took two-and-a-half months to clean up, but we were open the whole time. People would lend a hand and pick up a shovel—total strangers. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without those volunteers. The moral support uplifted our spirits. I don’t know what was more overwhelming, the flood or the surge of goodwill that came behind it. You don’t always know how to respond to all that. It was a humbling experience.

THE PUBLIC OFFICIAL: JOHN PIETIG

Pietig is the Laguna Beach City Manager.

We were all watching the weather the night before. All departments were on alert, and we put out fliers to businesses warning them there was a danger of flooding, but we didn’t know that a storm cell of that magnitude in that short a time was going to happen. And the rain that saturated the hillsides in the days before Dec. 22 was a big factor in the flooding.

[Regarding the illegal storage containers] In hindsight, we could have taken the person to court to achieve compliance, which is what we ultimately had to do. Typically, we try to work with people to achieve compliance, and unfortunately in this case it had taken a significant period of time. And he was a difficult person to work with. It has taken us many months, including multiple inspections, to finally bring the property in compliance, which is what it's in now, but we have to continue to monitor it.

When an event happens like this, we want to try and learn from it. The City Council took several steps afterthe flood. First, they had a community workshop. Out of that came the Disaster Preparedness Committee and the Flood Mitigation Task Force. We also learned about the type and depth of the soil in the canyon, and why we have flash floods more than other communities. We learned that despite some of our notifications, some of the businesses did not put in their flood gates, so we need to work better to educate owners and future residents about the flooding and remind them on an annual basis. We’re also going to get better at using our automated calling system. Will such actions prevent flooding in the future? No. There will still be future floods, but we can be better prepared to deal with them and minimize the impact.

We also need to make sure that people are clearing their drains. We've sent letters out to everyone in the canyon warning them of the flooding potential. We have to periodically follow up and look at those properties. We’re more on top of that now than we were before the flood. It's easier to get people to clean their properties a year after a flood than it is if you haven’t had a flood for five or six years.

PREVIOUS PATCH FLOOD COVERAGE:

Story: Downtown a muddy mess - http://patch.com/A-cKdV

Story: Water and mud ravage downtown - http://patch.com/A-cK65

Story: Animal Shelter and PMMC make progress - http://patch.com/A-dxKN

Story: Koi Ponds Almost Normal - http://patch.com/A-dvqS

Story: World Newsstand Reopens - http://patch.com/A-hMRp

Story: Homeless Man Speaks Aboutthe Floods - http://patch.com/A-cK7Z

Photos – water and mud - http://patch.com/A-cJYv

Photos – Damage - http://patch.com/A-cK65

Photos – Cleanup - http://patch.com/A-cK04

Video: Early morning flood footage - http://patch.com/A-cK5Z

Video: Kelly Boyd street interview - http://patch.com/A-cKLB

Video: Katharine Story cleanup - http://patch.com/A-cMKB

Video: Laguna Koi Ponds Being Flooded - http://patch.com/A-dwxM

Video: Olivia Batchelder flood damage - http://patch.com/A-dcHm