California Storm Damage

During the period of January 6 through January 10, 2005, Southern California was drenched with one storm after another. The storms dumped over 22 inches of rain on the Los Angeles area in just four days. The Los Angeles basin is not structured to handle this amount of rain since it's very rare that we get half this much in a full year. This much rain is especially a problem in the hills and mountains around the city where the ground became saturated to the point it could hold no more water. The soil turned to mud and much of it came down into homes and onto roadways. In La Conchita, a small community along the Ventura County coastline, the entire face of a mountain came down burring a dozen homes and taking as many lives. In other parts of the area, water and mud raised havoc with local residents doing millions of dollars worth of damage. The following photos and videos were taken from local tv newscasts over a period of 3 days immediately following the storms.