Normally at a crawl, the Los Angeles River threatens to overflow during torrential rains

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s easy to forget that a river runs through the heart of Los Angeles. Normally flowing at a crawl, much of it through nondescript concrete channels, the Los Angeles River picks up speed during the rainy season. By Monday, fed by a slow-moving atmospheric river dumping historic amounts of rain, the river was raging and even threatened to overspill its flood-control barriers in some sections. In a dramatic river rescue, an LA Fire Department helicopter crew pulled a man from the turbulent water after he jumped in to save his dog when the animal was swept away by the current.