Storm Watch: Thursday (Feb. 1) through Tuesday (Feb. 6)
Monday, February 5
UPDATE: Classes at seven CSU campuses were shifted to Zoom today, though the amount of rain in Long Beach was less than overwhelming in my neighborhood. However, the sewage spill into the Pacific Ocean that almost always occurs when more than two inches of rain hits Los Angeles County took place with a kind of aquatic fatalism.
https://lbpost.com/news/5-million-gallon-sewage-spill-prompts-long-beach-to-close-all-swimming-areas/?utm_medium=email
5-million-gallon sewage spill prompts Long Beach to close all swimming areas
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Yesterday, I drove my 1998 Oldsmobile to Allen Tire on Carson Boulevard and got new tires put on. I hope to be able to drive the car another year or so, and the old tires had reached their limit. My decision to set aside time for this chore was in large part due to the storm that’s coming in. We got a sneak preview just a while ago: as of 10 a.m. Thursday, February 1, 2.3 inches of rain had fallen overnight at Long Beach Airport, while 2.4 inches had fallen at LAX. The local deluge barricaded a portion of the 710 Freeway near PCH, and a nearby railroad underpass was also impassible. Floodwater nearly completely submerged several vehicles in the area. Other streets in Long Beach were only partially closed.Right hand lanes on Seventh Street, for instance, were engorged with rainwater, and traffic oozed its way along, reduced to the left lanes only. Parts of PCH in Huntington Beach, however, were closed in both directions. Elsewhere, the CHP reported at least 50 spinouts and crashes on freeways and roads in the central Los Angeles area Thursday morning. Flooding also embroiled the southbound side of the McClure Tunnel in Santa Monica. A foreboding hint of another possible residential catastrophe in the Rancho Palos Verdes and Palos Verdes Estates, after the next storm will have passed, also surfaced with reports of mud flows on Thursday on the peninsula’s roadways.
As of Saturday morning, February 3, two inches of rain are predicted for tomorrow, followed by an inch of rain on Monday. The storm will begin tuning up with a twelve-hour spate of showers that commence on Sunday, at midnight. By noon, the rain will begin falling in earnest and not let up until noon Tuesday, after which light rain and showers can be expected for another 24 hours. The storm will taper off on Tuesday, with less than a half-inch predicted.
The Grammy Award presentation focuses its broadcast on the songs and bands who will draw the biggest audiences. If only as a gesture of respect to those whose writing and performing is more aligned with various poetry scenes in Los Angeles than the bands who be featured tomorrow, here is a partial list of nominations for the Spoken Word Grammy this year:
The Spoken Word Nominations this year are:
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album
When The Poems Do What They Do == Aja Monet
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/aja-monet-when-the-poems-do-what-they-do/
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album
The Light Inside — J. Ivy
http://www.j-ivy.com/audios
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album
Grocery Shopping With My Mother. — Kevin Powell
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album
A-You’re Not Wrong B-They’re Not Either: The Fukc-It Pill Revisited. — Queen Sheba
Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording
It’s Ok To Be Angry About Capitalism
NOTE: J. Ivy won the inaugural Best Spoken Word Poetry Album Grammy in 2023 for “The Poet Who Sat By The Door.”
*****
In San Diego, slightly less than two weeks ago, an overwhelming deluge brought left the trolley system only functioning in a small portion of the county, and flooded several freeways. In National City, which is south of downtown San Diego, floods damaged many houses and apartment buildings, and approximately 100 people have been evicted from now uninhabitable buildings and are in desperate need of permanent shelter.
Four or more inches fell at:
Otay Mountain; Point Loma; National City, 4.21 inches; and Palomar Mountain.
Three or more inches fell at:
La Mesa; Fallbrook; Dulzura Summit, San Diego International Airport and Carlsbad Airport; Lake Cuyamaca; and Santee, 3.05 inches.
Oceanside and Kearney Mesa got two and a half inches; the mountain town of Julian received over two inches, as did San Marcos.
About Bill Mohr