The drenching rain and windstorms that have battered Southern California since the beginning of 2005 swept away a large section of the single runway at historic Santa Paula Airport on Tuesday, February 22. The airport, which is famous worldwide for its old-time-airport look and feel — created by its museum, which houses airport memorabilia and artifacts from the 1930s along with an eclectic collection of antique, classic, and experimental airplanes — will be closed until further notice.
The Santa Clara River — normally a dry, sandy riverbed — started to undercut hangars located at the east end of the airport on Monday, February 21. Crews quickly built a levee that saved the buildings. But within a few hours the force of the rushing water was quickly undercutting large sections of the western part of the airport. By noon on Tuesday the river had carved a huge C-shape chunk out of the 2,650-foot-long runway.
The antique-airplane capital of the world
Santa Paula Airport is known far and wide because of the informal show that takes place there on the first Sunday of every month. That's the day that the airplanes of Santa Paula are shown off (see " California Flying: Sundays at Santa Paula," August 2001 Pilot). Visitors can walk among the airplanes of yesteryear, talk to the owners, and enjoy a day at the airport. This tradition started in 1991 to take advantage of California's historical-airplane property tax exemption, but it's grown into an event that draws airplane aficionados from all over the world. In addition to the continuous flow of visitors, Santa Paula Airport has hosted its share of famous pilots including Charles Lindbergh, Roscoe Turner, Pancho Barnes, and Chuck Yeager during its 74 years of operation.
Where?
Santa Paula Airport is north of Los Angeles in the Heritage Valley of California. Rainfall in the area for the year is already double the normal average rainfall, according to the Santa Paula Times. That's more than 32 inches of rain since October 1. The airport is owned by an association of hangar owners and receives no public funds. Its annual budget is about $400,000.
Santa Paula is located 41 miles from the Los Angeles International Airport VOR on the 288-degree radial. Ironically, the land the airport was built on was formed by the Santa Clara River. Just after midnight on March 12, 1928, the greatest American civil engineering failure of the twentieth century (measured by loss of life) took place when the 180-foot-high walls of the St. Francis Dam, located upriver from Santa Paula near the town of Saugus, gave way. It's estimated that the wall of water that swept through Santa Paula — located 42 miles downriver — was 25 feet deep. More than 450 people died that night.
Within a few months local ranchers — who had each put up $1,000 — began building a new airport near the river. The Santa Paula Airport opened in August 1930 and has been in continuous operation since. The airport always has been privately owned and supported. The seventy-fifth anniversary celebration of the airport is scheduled to take place in August 2005.
More weather is on the way
Why didn't the Santa Clara River damage the airport sooner, in light of the series of powerful storms that have been battering California since the earliest days of 2005? Opinions vary — according to an article in the Ventura County Star, county hydrologist Scott Holder says the January storms deposited an island of debris and sediment upstream of the airport. This caused the water to change course enough to start deflecting into the airport bank.
According to Pat Quinn, the secretary of the Santa Paula Airport Association (SPAA), who is acting as the public information officer for the situation, the reason for the damage is that the earlier storms had washed away all the riprap — large boulders that had been placed in the riverbed to deflect the river's force — and the naturally occurring trees and shrubs that grow in the riverbed. This left the airport defenseless. "We [the 109 hangar owners who own the airport] had gotten an estimate of $5.5 million to replace the airport's defenses after they were washed away, but we weren't able to get all the permits we needed before this storm hit. I'm not an engineer but I'm guessing it will cost at least $20 million to get things back to normal," says Quinn.
According to Rowena Mason, president of the SPAA, at dawn on Tuesday, the river was within 30 feet of the airport property. Within seven hours it had advanced approximately 70 feet and had washed away a section of the airport up to the runway centerline.
After a series of calls to local agencies for help went for naught, the airport owners hired contractors and started a nonstop effort to slow the loss of the airport by dumping rock, asphalt, dirt, and other fill materials into the river. Aerial photos put the effort into perspective — the dump trucks and equipment looked like toys against the mud-brown waters they were fighting.
Since the Santa Paula Airport is privately owned, it doesn't automatically qualify for state or federal aid to rebuild. Nevertheless, city and county emergency services agencies consider the airport to be important to the region's public safety. It's too early to know whether public funds will be made available for rebuilding the airport, but it's certain that the airport will be closed indefinitely.
As of Wednesday, February 23, there is about 1,800 feet of runway remaining, although there is a large runway-size paved apron parallel to the runway. Departures are permitted — pilots from CP Aviation and Rich Stowell aerobatic training, and a few owners had flown their airplanes to nearby Oxnard or Camarillo airports. No landings are permitted.
According to the National Weather Service, there's another storm system lurking offshore that is scheduled to come ashore, so there's no way of telling as this issue goes to press how much damage the storms of 2005 will do to the Santa Paula Airport.
Restoring the runway and returning this important landmark of aviation to its former glory will be a daunting task — but it's too early to tell how this story will end.
For Santa Paula Airport updates, visit the Web site ( www.santapaulaairport.org).
E-mail the author at [email protected].
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