Hatfield The Rainmaker: The Man Who Courted Nature

By January 5 there was already rain at the reservoir. By January 10 heavy, almost continuous rain fell throughout the county. Then the downpour began in earnest – and continued for 10 days.

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To the inhabitants of San Diego, it seemed the rains would never end. As torrents of water rushed through the streets, business stopped and all normal life was suspended. Highways were closed and rail connection flooded. The telephone and telegraph were cut off. Rivers overflowed their banks, washing away houses and barns.

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There was a brief respite. For a few days the sun shone weakly through the clouds, and repair work began. But on January 26 the storm returned. At Morena Dam rain fell heavily and steadily all day. By midnight the level of the lake was rising at the rate of two feet per hour. It finally stopped just five inches from the top of the Dam, and disaster on a massive scale was averted.

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Great Flood: Member of the town council of San Diego, California, got more than they bargained for when they agreed to let Charles Hatfield make enough rain to fill the local reservoir. The resulting downpour led to widespread flooding and devastation.

Wall of Water

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Other districts were less fortunate. The nearby Lower Otay Dam disintegrated, releasing a wall of water 40 feet high. The water plowed 12 miles to the sea, demolishing everything before it.

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Altogether, an estimated 50 lives were lost, more than 200 bridges were washed away, and miles of track were destroyed; trains were halted for 32 days. The floods left scars on the mountains and hills for years, and in some places the landscape was changed permanently.

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There was no doubt in Hatfield’s mind that he had lived up to his promise to fill the Morena Reservoir. But when he went to claim his money, the city council refused to pay.

Hatfield had proceeded on the basis of an oral agreement without a signed, legal contract. Now the council was maintaining that the deluge was an “act of God,” unless Hatfield could provide evidence that he was the responsible. And, of course, Hatfield could never prove that it was he who had brought forth the rain.

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Many people thought that Hatfield had been treated unfairly, although the episode did much to enhance his reputation as King of the Cloud Compellers. He filed a suit against the city, but did little to pursue it; it was finally dismissed in 1938 for lack of prosecution.

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But the city of San Diego remembered Hatfield for years to come in 1948, when they hired a cloud seeder to make it rain, they took out substantial damage insurance.