The Brief

The flood tragedy in Texas has claimed over 100 lives — including at least 27 girls and staff at a summer camp — with an additional 161 people reported missing as of Tuesday.

It’s one of the nation’s deadliest floods this century and is spotlighting the growing numbers of flood deaths in the U.S., driven by heavier rainfall as the warming atmosphere holds more water.

Southern California has not been immune to serious injuries and deaths from floods.

In the wake of the tragedy in Texas, LAist set out to get answers about our local situation here.

We found that while flood infrastructure has come a long way since historic disasters, a warming climate is contributing to more frequent, powerful storms that heighten the risk of flooding in Southern California. Officials are six years behind schedule to fix one of the riskiest dams in the nation, sitting just above cities right here in Southern California.

But experts say there are steps you can take to protect yourself should disaster strike.

Flood infrastructure has improved a lot — but rainstorms are getting wetter, and local areas still flood 

Flooding used to be a regular occurrence in Southern California, both from rains and — in one major case — a manmade disaster.

Nearly a century ago, L.A. County suffered the deadliest dam failure in U.S. history. Design flaws caused the St. Francis Dam to collapse in 1928, killing at least 431 people from a flood that swept from Santa Clarita to Ventura.

The region has upgraded its flood control system since then by building major dams, water-holding basins and channelizing major rivers with concrete.

Some areas of the region do still flood during major storms — including one in 2005 that killed 10 people in a landslide and caused hundreds of millions in damage.

Even the modern infrastructure can still be inundated by a massive rainstorm.

“That system may be overwhelmed by a storm [that’s] the size and scope of what we've seen in Texas and what may be forecast as a hundred-year event,” said Kerjon Lee, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Public Works, which manages flood control systems across the county.

Major rainstorms are getting wetter, increasing flood risk

Storms that used to be expected once every 100 years are getting more frequent, experts say.

Frances Edwards, who oversaw emergency preparedness for the cities of San Jose and Irvine, said that, thanks to climate change, we can expect these 100-year storms — like the recent one in Texas — more frequently and in places we wouldn’t expect to be at risk.

“Just because it didn’t happen before, doesn't mean it can’t happen now,” she added. “The warmer the ocean gets, the warmer the air gets. The warmer the air gets, the more moisture it holds, which means there’s more moisture in the clouds when it rains, [and] as the ocean warms, we are going to see much wetter weather than before.”

The county’s draft hazard mitigation plan for 2025, which was made available for public comment this spring, says major rainstorms are expected to worsen with climate change, with a 95% chance of a flooding event each year in L.A. County. The draft plan is expected to go to the county Board of Supervisors for final approval.

We’re home to one of the nation’s highest-risk dams for major flooding

In 2016, the Whittier Narrows Dam above Pico Rivera was designated in the highest risk category nationally for failure — deemed by an official study to be “unsafe” and “critically near failure.”

Failure of the dam could be catastrophic, according to the county’s previous hazard mitigation plan from 2020.

“An intense storm could prematurely open the dam’s massive spillway and flood the area below from Pico Rivera to Long Beach,” the county plan states.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the dam, classified it as the “highest dam priority nationally because of the risks ‘due to the combination of loss of life with a very high likelihood of failure” during a rare flood event.

An Army Corps construction project to fix the dam was expected to finish by 2025, the county plan stated.

The work is now six years behind schedule, with an estimated completion in 2031, a spokesperson for the city of Pico Rivera told LAist in an interview.

The Army Corps of Engineers did not have someone available to answer questions on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson.

But Pico Rivera spokesperson Javier Hernandez described to LAist the latest briefing the city got from the Army Corps and its contractor.

Major construction is expected to start late next spring and early summer, and be completed by the end of 2031, Hernandez said. The Army Corps cited the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturn, supply chain shortages, and increased costs to obtain the large amount of raw materials as the main reasons for the delay, he said.

At the same time, Hernandez said heavier rainfall is “testing the limits of the dam.”

“The big challenge the Army Corps has outlined is, building such a significant project while trying to best plan for weather and weather conditions,” Hernandez said. “Hopefully, we don’t have the 500-year storm between now and completion of this project.”

How to prepare and protect yourself from flooding

Edwards, the former emergency planning director, said it’s important to pay close attention to weather forecasts and news reports before and during major storms — and to evaluate the area around your home for flood risks.

“Look at your environment, and ask yourself, if there’s a whole lot of rain that’s going to come in a hurry, is it going to come racing down the side of that mountain…or is it going to clog up storm drains in my area? What’s my risk in my location?” she said.

L.A. County emergency officials set up ready.lacounty.gov to help prepare for all kinds of disasters, including floods, said Lee of the public works department.

The flood preparation page includes links to maps of flood risks in the region.

“Severe flooding could happen almost anywhere in L.A. County. Just because you live adjacent to the L.A. River doesn't mean that there's not risk there,” Lee said.

People should try to keep three to four days of food and supplies at home in case they get stranded and are awaiting help, Edwards said. It’s also good to arrange in advance to have multiple people check in to make sure you’re OK, she said.

If someone doesn’t communicate back, that’s a trigger they may be stranded and to contact authorities, she said.

“You should still have a buddy system, so somebody knows that they haven’t heard from you,” Edwards said. “Asking for help is extremely important for everybody. I don't care how young and able-bodied you are.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

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“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

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We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

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Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

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Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

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Anthony Chieh

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“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

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Anthony Chieh

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What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.