From the Los Angeles Times Framework blog, in a post by Scott Harrison:

“In a Dec. 11, 2003, Los Angeles Times article, reporter Bob Pool wrote about the Dec. 14, 1963, Baldwin Hills Dam collapse:

“The Baldwin Hills Dam collapsed with the fury of a thousand cloudbursts, sending a 50-foot wall of water down Cloverdale Avenue and slamming into homes and cars on Dec. 14, 1963. … It foreshadowed the end of urban-area earthen dams as a major element of the Department of Water and Power’s water-storage system. It prompted a tightening of Division of Safety of Dams control over reservoirs throughout the state.”

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