This concept is by no means limited to LA. Here in the east, each winter we’ll get a couple of “storms of the decade” and we’re usually good for at least one “storm of the century”. Named tropical storms receive coverage worthy of Katrina for as long as the wind is above 50 knots.
I remember one storm that was actually big, and a (plant) nursery in Malibu was washed away. The next year KNBC-4 had a woman standing out there on Storm Watch! next to a tiny trickle in the street saying basically, ‘I’m at the scene where the nursery was washed away last year. It’s not raining now, but everyone be aware that this is where a nursery was washed away last year!’ Pretty lame.
Is it getting near the People-Caught-In-The-L.A.-River-And-Washed-Away Season yet?
My bet is on two people this time around. There’s a flash flood watch in effect that says we may get up to an inch per hour at point, which is a lot for around here. I find it hard to imagine that someone won’t get swept away.
My train passes over the LA River every morning on the way downtown. It’ll be very interesting on Monday to actually see water in it. Come to think of it, since the storm is moving south, there ought to be some decent water in there tomorrow morning.
Can I tell you all my LA storm story? OK, thanks. 
I think it was 1983. I was working at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Hollywood. I lived in Vista, San Diego Co, about 90 miles one way. I worked the 3 PM to 11 PM shift, but was in charge of the whole unit. I was often there from mid morning til 2 or 3 in the morning.
So, one evening, I’d just finished my 200th meeting for the day, and started my regular shift. A couple people came in wet, so, the predicted rain had begun.
I was half way through rounds when the lights went off. The emergency lights flashed on, then black. All of Hollywood was black.
The emergency generator was on the roof. The rain came down so hard, that the roof drains couldn’t handle it. The generator was under water.
My staff wasn’t very strong. They needed a lot of guidance. When the lights went out, they all screamed. I was the only one with a flashlight, and it was a pen light. I knew it wouldn’t last more than a few minutes. I used it to go find all the flashlights on the floor and passed them out. I left them to figure it out and went where I would be useful.
My unit was on the third floor, the ICU was on the second. I crawled down the stairs, hugging the wall, and counting doors to the ICU. They had 18 patients on ventilators.
I helped hand ventilate for eight hours.
When I left the hospital, the water in the flat parking lot was almost up to my knees.
It rained like that for five days straight. Several stretches of PCH washed out, not to mention the houses that slid down the many hills.
That was the only year it rained more than two days in a row in the nine years I lived there.
Kevin and Beans advice for a rainy day in LA? Leave late and drive fast, that way you are on the road less time, therefore safer. 
Well, that rain’s gonna hit any second now. Yessir, aaaaaany second…
OK, seriously, it is starting to look a bit gloomy out west. This morning, forecasters were saying that the storm stalled yesterday, which is why it didn’t start raining in the evening as predicted. But they also said that the stall caused it to pick up strength. I’m hearing numbers as high as 15 inches of rain for some of the foothill and mountain areas. It’s supposed to start in LA around midday today.
If I’m looking a little blue this morning, it’s because I decided to hold my breath after all.
I’ve been using that one for years!
In the same vein, natural foods are bad. Hundreds of years ago all foods were natural, and everyone who ate them are dead!
For hurricane coverage, CBS would have Dan Rather standing at some rain- and wind-lashed spot overlooking the violent ocean, bravely struggling to speak about the approaching storm and the disaster it portended. What they didn’t show was the trip by private jet to the nearby city, the limo ride to the fancy hotel with its $800/night suite, the change into rain gear, the limo ride to the carefully pre-selected photo spot, nor the return trip.
You gotta love “courageous journalism.”
Jesus. I can’t believe you commuted from Vista to Hollywood, picunurse! I commuted from Redondo Beach to North Hollywood for about a year and was ready to throw myself off a cliff.
So far no rain down this way. There are clouds, but they don’t look rainy enough yet. I think that yesterday The Weather Channel said it was supposed to have started raining last night. Figures.
I think Dan Rather is a bit of a ass, but he actually was courageous early in his career. He was a nobody at a Houston station when he covered hurricane Carla in 1961 and he didn’t have a limo driving him anywhere. His live broadcast from the Galveston seawall during the storm was the first time a reporter had ever done something like that.
Still very cold and cloudy here but no rain yet.
Well I don’t know about L.A., but here in Reno the rain is coming in sideways and the winds are supposed to be up to 70 mph by this evening. They’re sending us home at 3, and they never send us home early.
Yep, think I’ll stock up on beer and candles on m’way home this afternoon…
Newsflash from Los Angeles:
To quote a long-ago caller to Kevin & Bean’s hotline, “OH MY GOD IT’S RAINING!!!”
The Storm of the Century was supposed to land here yesterday. It was a bit late, but made up for it.
So far, we’ve had semis flipped, nearly 300,000 without power, commuter ferries staying in port due to rough seas, (rough bays?) scaffolding blown down, roads flooded, countless umbrellas turned inside-out, and anything not nailed down has been blown around - neighborhoods that have trash pickup today are a mess with trash and cans scattered - and this reasonably modern office building is creaking like an old ship in the wind.
I’m from Chicago, and would categorize this weather as “crappy” but not “Storm of the Century!”
So far we just have the Overcast of the Century here in the AV. The weather doodad on my google page is saying it’s 37 and snowing, but it is definitely not either. It’s quite pleasant out.
Another Bay Area person checking in. It’s raining in Sunnyvale, and it is windy, but enough for the news to start an hour early with coverage? My commute was actually lighter than usual this morning. Last night we had the brave TV reporters daring the drizzle, with their live reports. I think they’re jealous of the Weather Channel people who get to go to where there is real weather.
When I lived in New Jersey we didn’t get this level of coverage for five inches of snow (30 inches, yes.)
But I’m glad to see it, since we need the rain also. There was talk last night that this storm might put the snow pack in the Sierras above normal.
Meanwhile, next to the Canadian border and the Strait of Georgia, it’s about 40º and drizzling. Just a normal day for this time of year.
I didn’t think your rain dance would work. After all, you’re only 1/32 Native American.
Can’t blame a girl for trying!
And Cheez_Whia told me you’re very trying!
j/k, d&r