The Great Flood of 1862 began on December 24 , 1861 when it rained for almost four weeks , reaching a total of at Los Angeles . The failure and near complete collapse of the St. Francis Dam took place in the middle of the night on March 12 , 1928 . The dam was holding a full reservoir of 12.4 billion gallons ( 47 billion liters ) of water that surged down San Francisquito Canyon and emptied into the Santa Clara River . The town was first hit by the waters at approximately 3:00 a.m. Though hundreds of homes and structures were destroyed , the loss of life would have been greater if it were not for two motorcycle police officers that noisily warned as many people as possible . A sculpture called " The Watchers " in downtown Santa Paula depicts this act of heroism
Great Flood of 1862
Great Flood of 1862
Santa Paula, California