"Oops. Cancel that story, guys."
About 40 years ago a fierce storm surprised the L.A. area because the weather equipment wasn't what it is today. It sort of sneaked in under its own cloud cover, like Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane. A previous storm about 30 years earlier had devastated the area, so the governments spent about a billion dollars paving the rivers (not kidding, folks) and building up other infrastructure. It worked and paid back the $1B in damage prevented.
Today the L.A. and other rivers are good for car chase scenes.
Anyway, planes are smaller of course.

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