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. The U.S. Department of Agnculture is nother agency active in southern California. They operate under a directive to implement a program of "runoff and water-flow retardatipn and soil-erosion prevention." Funds have been used by the Department for the following purposes: I. Fire control, including the construction and improvement of fire-truck roads. 2. Mountain channel improvements, including debris barriers. 3. Farmland improvements. 4. S t a bilization of highway fills in the mountain areas. 5. Debris basins. 6. Improvement of vegetative cover. Many reservoirs in the region have been constructed primarily for water supply by public, private, and mutual enterprises. Those reservoirs have also proven effective for flood control within the limits of the storage space .hey have available at the time a flood starts. DESCRIPTION OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STORMS OF JANUARY 18-26,1969 Southern California, until January 12, 1969, was experiencing an unseasonal winter drought. and the moderate precipitation that occurred on January 13-14 gave little indication that the drought was soon to be broken. The series of storms that was to plague the region did not begin until the evening of January 17. Precipitation was relativcly light until January I 9 when intensities increased sharply. The center of the eastward-moving low-pressure area that generated the storms stagnated about 700 miles off the coast on January 21, with the result that a succession of storm waves passed over southern California. Except for a hIll on January 22, heavy precipitation occurred during most of the period January 19-26. and this was climaxed by the intense downpour of January 25. During most of the storm period the freezing level was at an altitude 7,000 feet; precipitation occurred as rain bclow that altitude and as snow at the higher altitudes, Table I summarizes precipitation data for selected stations throughout the area. Some of the storm totals exceed the heaviest January precipitation previously recorded at the stations. The wide range of precipitation values in the table reflects the general decrease of precipitation with distance from the storm center and the local increase of precipitation with altitude. DESCRIPTION OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FLOODS OF JANUARY 18-26, 1969 Heavy rains during the 4-day period January 18-21 brought widespread, but generally minor, damage to southern California. Damage was severe, however, in localized areas. Streams rose but even those that were uncontrolled by reservoirs generally stayed within their banks and flooding was localized. Ten campers, Table I.-Summary oj precipilaliorl dala al selected s!aNorls Precipitation station Precipitation, in inches, for dates shown Name Altitude Jan. 25 Jan. 25-26 Jan. 18-21 Jan. 23-26 (feet) Entire storm, Jan. 18-26 Big Bear Dam______ 6,800 11.05 18.59 13.60 21.82 35.42 San Bernardino_______ 1,100 2.53 4.99 3.35 6.08 9.43 Mount Baldy__. 4.280 11.04 21.42 20.08 27.54 47.62 Glendora West_______ 820 6.00 7.35 8.28 9.22 17.50 . Gpids Camp_________ 4,250 15.56 21.11 21.01 24.16 45.17 Burbank________ 680 4.43 5.98 7.10 7.16 14.26 Topanga__________________ 745 9.54 12.18 12.98 14.20 27.18 Matilija Dam__ 1.050 9.15 14.76 20.84 17.17 38.01 B5