The New Deal in Orange County, California

Unpredictably harsh elements wreaked havoc in Orange County during the Great Depression. The 1933 Long Beach earthquake claimed 115 lives, shattering lands eastward across the Los Angeles County line into the Orange County cities. Then 60 people perished in the devastating 1938 Santa Ana River flood, which washed out roads and buildings and much of the county’s namesake citrus industry. Orange County’s 130,000 people received a greater density of federal public aid than LA County’s 2.2 million and San Diego County’s 210,000. Join Charles Epting on this tour of the buildings, bridges, harbors, trails, libraries, highways and other infrastructure gains–many still in use–that were revitalized by the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps and other agencies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.