In early February, meteorologists warned Southern Californians that a supercharged storm was headed their way, potentially bringing catastrophic flash flooding.
When trillions of gallons drench a typical concrete-dominated cityscape, the water runs off rooftops and slides onto impermeable concrete driveways and into streets, turning them into virtual rivers.
But this time, most of LA's stormwater system held up. Not only that, but instead of sending all that water straight to the sea, the city managed to capture more than 8 billion gallons.
That's partly due to stepped-up efforts to make the city a bit more spongelike, by retrofitting impermeable concrete... to a more absorbent landscape.
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