Hilary Hits SoCal

It rained pant suits and deplorables all over southern California as Tropical Storm Hilary moved through Sunday.

Lake Elsinore – of which I was mayor and council member – was a few miles off the “eye” line, resulting in heavy rain but, it seems, no other damage.

“It was less than everyone was thinking, so I guess that’s a good thing,” said resident Sharon Dean. “It was nice to see people together helping each other out, filling sandbags together, even though some of this winter’s rains were harder actually.”

Resident Jeff Morris has a home weather station which he said clocked in about 2.6 inches of rain in the six or so hours the main part of the storm took to pass over.

While Hilary does not now threaten to overflow the lake, residents were prepared for the worst.

Sandbags had been put down around buildings in the downtown and “back basin” areas (closer to the lake) and throughout other neighborhoods as well to prevent runoff flooding – Elsinore has hills and mountains, too.

The city is – obviously – known for its lake, the only natural lake in the region and a lake that has been temperamental in the past. For years after World War II, it dried up completely (it is not spring but San Jacinto River fed) and then in 1980 it flooded to twice its typical 3,000-acre size.

Since Hilary seems to have done little damage, it could actually be a plus for Lake Elsinore as the water could fill the lake to the point that the city and water district will not have to pay next year to cover the cost to pump water to keep the lake full, as it has to do in some dry years.

The lake loses about four feet of water each year to evaporation and is not very deep – right now it’s about 28 feet deep – so that has been a key city issue for years. Using a local rule of thumb, two and half inches of rain should mean about three feet of water in the lake.

“It’s like money in the bank,” Morris said.

The surface level of the lake right now is about 1,242 feet above sea level, a good operational size. The lake sits below another lake – Canyon Lake – which dams the San Jacinto but releases water when its level hits about 1,381.76 feet above sea level.  The dam has already been “overtopped” by the rain – don’t worry, it’s supposed to work that way when the water gets too high – and is already flowing into Lake Elsinore.

Lake Elsinore – when it reaches a surface level of about 1,255 feet above sea level– spills into an outflow channel that eventually makes it way to the Santa Ana River in Corona. If it hits 1,265 feet above sea level, then it starts causing serious neighborhood flooding. Hilary will not add enough water to get even close to those number.

At the decades-old institution The Wreck Bar downtown, the mood was Sunday afternoon festive and Bridget the bartender even brought in “Chilary Dogs” for the clientele this afternoon.

The perfect Lake Elsinore response.