Rain

The Independent went to Village View Elementary School in Huntington Beach to ask students, 'What do you usually do on a rainy day?' "Usually, I kind of like watch TV, play games, watch TV, play games, for, like, 24 hours." TIN TRAN, 8 Huntington Beach "Mostly, after school, I do my homework, and after that I play Playstation, play 'Transformers Armada' and other games." JASON WILKERSON, 8 Huntington Beach "I go home and do my homework, and after, I go outside and play in the rain.

Only once in the previous 14 years has the massive Easter Egg Hunt at Huntington Beach Central Park been canceled by rain. Coordinator Dottie Hughes was confident that at least several thousand participants would attend last Saturday's event as planned, despite the forecast of rain falling Friday and into the morning of the big hunt. It rained all day Friday, and a few ominous clouds early Saturday morning threatened to release more. "I was very nervous at 6:15 a.m. when one big, dark cloud passed overhead," said Hughes, the recreation supervisor for the City of Huntington Beach Community Services Department.

Rain washed out the debut Friday of the Ocean View High baseball team, but the Seahawks doubled up on Saturday to win a pair of games in the Foothill Division of the Newport Elks Tournament. First, Ocean View took care of visiting Newport Harbor, 4-3. Jason Walker pitched 5 1/3 innings of shutout relief and struck out eight in the process. Nick McIsaac came up with the game-winning hit on offense as he singled home James Miller with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to seal the victory.

It’s finally raining! I was beginning to doubt predictions that this was going to be an El Niño rainy season. This weekend, I accompanied Vic on a field trip to the Sacramento and Stockton areas with his natural history class. On Friday, we visited the San Luis Reservoir, a major water storage facility along the California Aqueduct. Water from the Bay-Delta is stored there until it is sent farther south to the farms and cities of Southern California, including Huntington Beach.

Rain fell hard on Huntington Beach this weekend, but heavy precipitation didn’t flood neighborhoods next to a crumbling levee. Just after the eroding East Garden Grove-Wintersburg Channel next to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands passed the test of heavy rainfall this weekend, workers began Monday to bolster it against collapse. As rain began to fall Friday, Orange County Flood Control employees patrolled the area around the clock to make sure waters wouldn’t spill into the surrounding neighborhood.

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES Rain, rain, come our way. Water and the lack of it have certainly been in the news the past few weeks. According to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, this summer was much drier than normal, with drought parching half of the country. That may be an effect of global warming. Another result of global warming will be more severe storms. We may be seeing that already. This September, Texans cleaned up the mess left by 2 to 4 inches of rain falling per hour from Tropical Storm Fay. Tropical Storm Gustav lashed the eastern seaboard with heavy rain, followed closely by Tropical Storm Hanna, which poured 4 inches of rain across Alabama and Florida.

MICHELE MARR "All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive," -- JESUS, MATTHEW 21:22 In the worst days of the recent wildfires that devoured hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness and several thousand homes, I talked to quite a few people who said they were praying, some who quickly confessed they rarely prayed. Several had donated money to the Red Cross then felt there was little else they could do. "Why not [pray]

There was a moment last week when I wasn’t sure I would live to write this column. That happened about 1 p.m. Jan. 19, as a tornado began pounding Huntington Beach while I was on my way to an interview at the Central Library. The rain wasn’t much more than a sprinkle when I left the newsroom, so I didn’t think much of driving out into it. I opted to take surface streets instead of the slick freeway, and that was that. Somewhere on Talbert Avenue, that sprinkle turned into possibly the heaviest downpour I have ever seen.

Rain washed away the start to the 2006 Sunset League baseball race for four schools Friday. Although the Los Alamitos-Marina and Fountain Valley-Esperanza games had to be rescheduled, wet conditions didn't prevent Edison from taking on host Huntington Beach. Tarps protected the playing field at Huntington during the rain that fell earlier in the day, and the storm stopped well before the first pitch at 3 p.m. "The rain altered the field conditions a bit, but it had been protected pretty well, and so we decided to get the game in," said Edison Coach Steve Lambright, whose squad arrived at the field at 2 p.m. After the first inning, Lambright may have wished the game had been rescheduled.

Rick Fignetti Last weekend Stormin' Norman hit the west coast lashing the beaches with wind and pelting them with rain. It was coming down by the bucket fulls at times. A bit of a northwest swell filled in as the storm blew by, but not with the cleanest shape. It over powered that freak southwest swell that hit. In the higher elevations, the local mountains picked up a few inches of snow to help their cause. Mammoth Mountain is claiming a nine-foot base and over a foot of new, from the last storm.

Huntington Beach overcame a downpour and the Fountain Valley Barons on Oct. 11 to post another shutout victory, this one a 5-0 decision that kept the Oilers undefeated in Sunset League girls' field hockey play. Kayla Wigney scored three goals and Nicola Taglieri and Samantha Earthman each scored once. Abby Masters and Kirsti Strangeland had assists as the Oilers improved to 6-0 in league. Huntington traveled north last weekend to UC Davis for tournament action. The Oilers went 0-2, losing to Davis High (2-0)

Parents gathered in their scarves and umbrellas under a canopy to escape the rain to watch Robert Gisler Elementary School's orchestra. With cameras, cell phones and video cameras trained on the two dozen students playing violins and acoustic guitars — along with a lone pianist and percussionist — parents watched the students while waiting for the holiday concert to begin. Gisler hosted its annual Special Persons' Day as the rain trickled down on the campus. Special Persons' Day is an annual holiday celebration where the students invite the special people in their lives to hear them sing and check out their schoolwork, fifth-grader and student council President Rachel Simurda said.

Officials monitored rainfall levels at the Ascon Landfill Site this week but said there was no chance that rainwater from the site could overflow into the streets and neighborhoods. "There is no danger of any water leaking out of the site," said Unit Chief Greg Holmes, who is overseeing the cleanup at 21641 Magnolia St. Rainwater threatened to escape the 38-acre landfill in 2005. The berms that surround the lagoons were bolstered that year as part of an emergency repair when rainwater threatened to spill into the streets, according to the Independent's archives.

In 1992, the United Nations designated March 22 as World Water Day. The first celebration was in 1993. That’s why you may have noticed increased media coverage of water lately. For example, the entire April issue of National Geographic is devoted to water stories. One article, “California’s Pipe Dream: A heroic system of dams, pumps and canals can’t stave off a water crisis,” is about Southern California. Southern California is in a real water crisis, and it’s not going to go away.

The recent rainstorms in Orange County, which drenched Surf City and flooded streets throughout town, could have a silver lining for the next Miss Huntington Beach: They may make her roses bloom a little faster. Every year, the city honors its newly crowned queen by dedicating a rose bush to her outside City Hall. The bushes, which live for decades, line a planter with bronze tablets displaying the name of the queen below each one. Tuesday, the garden had precious little color, but a few radiant petals stood out amid the winter drabness.

Cleanup crews continued to remove debris from the Huntington Beach coastline Wednesday after a series of heavy storms over the last week. Scott Smith, the city’s beach operations supervisor, said crews planned to keep busy for the next few days. Another rainstorm hit the area Tuesday, but it was much milder than the recent storms. “Given what’s out there now, and provided we don’t get any more severe storms, we should be cleaned up within a week,” Smith said.

There was a moment last week when I wasn’t sure I would live to write this column. That happened about 1 p.m. Jan. 19, as a tornado began pounding Huntington Beach while I was on my way to an interview at the Central Library. The rain wasn’t much more than a sprinkle when I left the newsroom, so I didn’t think much of driving out into it. I opted to take surface streets instead of the slick freeway, and that was that. Somewhere on Talbert Avenue, that sprinkle turned into possibly the heaviest downpour I have ever seen.