CHRIS MACDONALD NEWS Jan 31, 2021

2021 Newsletters

Early February 2021 Huntington Beach Happenings

Hello Friends,

Happy Birthday to Huntington Beach Resident Mike Finston.

Ingrid Ono, Assistant to Interim Huntington Beach Police Chief Julian Harvey Said:

The HBPD would like to congratulate two of our sergeants on the successful completion of the Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute: Sgt. Shawn White — Class #449 and Sgt. Jerry Goodspeed — Class #450. This intensive leadership development program has made an impressive imprint on each of the participants, and will be instrumental in the growth and continued positive direction for the future of our Department. Congratulations!

The Huntington Beach Public Works Department has no new Items to mention.

From the desk of City Council Member Barbara Delgleize

At Monday night's City Council meeting I had the pleasure of appointing Stacy Taylor as my commissioner for the Citizens Infrastructure Advisory Board. Many thanks for the services of John McGovern my previous commissioner.

Our local City Council Intergovernmental Relations Committee (IRC) made the following recommendations:

A) Adopt Resolution No. 2021-11, "A Resolution Expressing Support for Actions that will Further Strengthen Local Governance and Authority Over Housing-Related Issues in Huntington Beach"; and/or
B) Approve a letter of support for the Federal Communications Commission's Emergency Broadband Benefit Program; and/or
C) Approve a letter in opposition to oil and gas drilling off Southern California coast through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
Items A, B Approved 7-0; Item C Approved 6-1 (Peterson-No)

Final reading of the Magnolia Tank Farm:
A) Adopt Ordinance No. 4225, "An Ordinance of the City of Huntington Beach Amending the Huntington Beach Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance to Rezone the Real Property Generally Located on the Westside of Magnolia Street at Banning Avenue from PS-O-CZ (Public- Semipublic - Oil Production Overlay - Coastal Zone Overlay) to SP-18-CZ (Specific Plan - Coastal Zone Overlay)(Zoning Map Amendment No. 17-001);" and,
B) Adopt Ordinance No. 4226, "An Ordinance of the City of Huntington Beach Adopting a Development Agreement By and Between the City of Huntington Beach and SLF-HB Magnolia, LLC (Developer)(Development Agreement No. 19-001)."
Approved 4-3 (Peterson, Ortiz, Carr-No)

The City Council approved maintaining a Membership with the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA), Community Choice Energy (CCE) Joint Power Authority (JPA)CONSENSUS REACHED TO TABLE Item Submitted by Mayor Carr, Councilmember Posey, and Councilmember Kalmick - Consideration of a No Confidence Vote in Mayor Pro Tem Ortiz, and Removing him from the Mayor Pro Tem Leadership Role. Tuesday, February 16, 2021, at 4:00 PM in the Civic Center Council Chambers, 2000 Main Street, Huntington Beach, California.

OC COVID CASES CONTINUE TO SLOW, CVS TO OFFER VACCINES:
—OC's new COVID-19 cases count continues to fall. Keep up the good work and remember to #MaskUp and get your vaccine! CVS will start distributing vaccine's in OC on February 11, learn more here.
— VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO ASSIST VACCINATION EFFORTS:
—OneOC's Emergency Volunteer Center is in urgent need of both medical trained and general support volunteers to support vaccination sites. Sign up to volunteer here.

Wishing you all the best, Barbara

From Patrick Brenden, CEO at The Bolsa Chica Conservancy...
Volunteerism is big in Huntington Beach.
At the Conservancy, we rely heavily upon the generosity of community members from Huntington Beach as well as many surrounding cities. That generosity comes in many forms that fall roughly into three categories: Time, Talent, Treasure, and we are truly grateful for any form of support we receive. If you're planning to purchase a gift for a loved one this Valentine's Day, please consider these various ways of shopping that make a contribution as a result of your purchase. The most obvious is Amazon Smile. If you're not familiar with this program, it is set up so that a small percentage of your purchases is donated to the charitable organization of your choice. Of course, we hope that you will choose The Bolsa Chica Conservancy as your favored nonprofit. Once you sign up for this program, just double-check the URL in your browser window any time you log into Amazon. You should see smile.amazon.com or something like this - just be sure it shows the "smile" in the URL or else it won't count. Ralphs grocery stores have a Community Program that does much the same as Amazon Smile. And, you can also sign up on iGive.com for another unique online shopping experience that supports nonprofits. These are just a few ways to SHOW LOVE for your favorite nonprofit during this Valentine's season.

Water, Water everywhere and not a drop to Drink
Huntington Beach City Historian Jerry Person Presents Remembering When:

When I'm writing this week's Remember When, it is raining cats and dogs, cows and chickens outside and so this week's story is about a storm that struck our community in 1938. But I better hurry before the sun comes out as we all know how fickle the weather can be here in Huntington Beach.

But there was a time in 1938 that the rains came and came and came for four days they came that turned much of our county into one big giant mud hole.

The late Huntington Beach resident Orville Hanson recalled to me of seeing horses standing neck-high in flood water on a local farm in the southern area of Huntington Beach. Hanson told me those horses would walk to the nearby bank and come out to feed and then walk back into those flood waters to return to their home.

Even though downtown Huntington Beach is built on a mesa that is 30-feet above sea level, this didn't protect some of the area from being completely surrounded by water.

The rain began to fall on Sunday, February 27, 1938 and would continue for four nightmarish days bringing 6.42 inches of rain to Huntington Beach. The rains continued on Monday swelling the Santa Ana River throughout the western parts of Orange County.

By Tuesday parts of the western area of Orange County was flooded as the Santa Ana River grew higher and higher. But the good news was that the levees were holding back the flood waters.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office issued the first warning of disaster on Wednesday, March 2nd over the county's radio station KVOE, but then two hours after midnight on Thursday, March 3rd came the awful news.

Dr. Phil Sheehan, Huntington Beach's representative to the county's American Legion Disaster & Relief Committee was the first to receive word that the levee above the town of Olive "failed" and the flood waters were rushing towards Huntington Beach and would be here in less then two hours.

He quickly mobilized our Huntington Beach American Legion members, the Huntington Beach Police and Fire personal and made frantic calls to Legion Posts in Midway City, Seal Beach and Garden Grove requesting volunteers.

Members of the Legion's "Paul Revere" squad began commandeering rowboats and motorboats from everywhere. This squad consisted of Dr. Sheehan, William Hunter, Louie Mitchell, Lee Chamness, Roy Patrick, Del Burry, J.K. Sargent, Bill Donnelly, Joe Hudson, Harry Letson and Ben Dulaney.

As the first rays of sunlight lit the morning sky it showed the flood waters were rising at a rate of about one foot per hour. Fountain Valley and the lowlands of Huntington Beach to the east were now flooded.

The first rescue boat left Huntington Beach at 6 a.m. to rescue a man stranded on Fifth Street in Santa Ana as 20-year-old Huntington Beach resident Jack Dunn braved the swift current of the Santa Ana River to rescue Monte Montrose, the caretaker of the Orange County sewer outfall plant.

Huntington Beach City Councilman Lee Chamness and City Engineer Harry Overmyer found themselves marooned in the sticky mud and they in turn also had to be rescued. The Bowen Oil Tool Company sent men to help as well as Standard Oil Co. and the O.C. Field Gas plant.

By now the Talbert Avenue bridge was gone and parts of Ocean Avenue (Beach Blvd.) were under water as were major streets leading to Santa Ana.

Harley Asari's goldfish hatchery out on Warner Avenue lost several thousand valuable goldfish to thse heavy flood waters.

Jesse Stewart, Jim Clark and about 30 other men stacked sandbags around the Huntington Beach Waste Water plant, but the river broke through anyway.

Bud Higgins was able to rescue a man stranded on a rooftop.

As these men struggled with nature, Henry "Hank" Wedel of 305 Sixth Street spent three sleepless days and nights at his Ham radio station sending messages about the rescue victims to their relatives across the country.

Bill Post volunteered his motorboat to help rescue several horses trapped in a corral near the Santa Ana River. He also saved a man trapped near the washed out Talbert bridge. Post would again set out in his motorboat to help, only this time his propeller jammed in debris and he disappeared for five long hours only to reappear in his boat with two children aboard he had rescued.

The viaduct at Lake Street and Yorktown Avenue filled with water and the only way through was by boat. The Pacific Electric railroad tracksnext to Pacific Coast Highway got twisted by the flowing waters and our beach were filled with logs, broken furniture, trash and debris.

It was fortunate that our elementary school's field trip to L.A. Harbor to tour the battleship U.S.S. Idaho was canceled, because at approximately the same time the school bus would have crossed the Los Angeles River bridge to come home, the bridge was washed away.

While back inside Memorial Hall (5th St. & Orange Ave.) hundreds of refugees were arriving and given hot coffee and coffee cakes by Pearl Jones and her workers from the Red Cross. Stew, bread, coffee, butter and milk were served to stranded tourists as well as local refugees by Red Cross workers Jessie Hayden, Alice Freeman, Harry Overmyer and Del Burry.

Everyone came together as a unit in those four faithful days and in the end showed that the spirit of goodness and kindness prevailed here in Huntington Beach. Our citizens unselfishly volunteered food, clothing and time to help meet one of our area's greatest disasters.

Another heavy storm struck Huntington Beach in the same months 45 years later in 1983, that flooded parts of Huntington Beach, it also damaged the pier and left a part of the End Cafe hanging out over the ocean.

Did you notice that one great storm happened in 1938 and if you reverse the last two numbers, you get 1983 and another great storm that flooded parts of Huntington Beach and closed parts of Pacific Coast Highway for half of that year. I guess Mother Nature must have been in a playful mood those two years.

Many Thanks for reading this Newsletter,

Chris MacDonald

Website: calcoasthomes.com

E-Mail: justlisted@yahoo.com