The west end of the field, looking west. The runway should be visible to the right. The pickup is sitting on what's left of the taxiway.

West end of the Corona Airport. My hangar is visible on the right side of the picture. At this point it only has a couple of feet of water in it, but later the water will nearly reach the roofline.

Initially airplanes were evacuated to the east end of the field, where the elevation is 15 feet higher. But within 24 hours, the entire airport was threatened, so aircraft were towed off the field and onto city streets.

Is it AOPA Expo? No, it's the Great Flood of 2004.

"Keep moving, folks. Nothing to see here."

This is but one of many classic, unique, and/or restored airplanes saved from the flood water by a cadre of dedicated volunteers who worked all day to evacuate their own belongings and then worked through the night to help others.

Cutting it a bit close, aren't we?

The fuel island at Corona Airport, which is located at mid-field. Only once in the past 15 years had the water even come close to this point. Now it's well past it.

Tiedown area east of the fuel island. About 2200 feet of the airport's 3200 foot runway are now under water.

Nearly all of the 500 airplanes based on the field were successfully evacuated. If the owner couldn't be reached, the hangar lock was cut off and the plane towed to safety. But there were a few airplanes that simply couldn't be moved in time. The water was rising that quickly.

Looking west at the fuel island. Water has covered all but 1000 feet of the runway and is still rising.

This is a pretty brilliant photograph. It captures the experience of being at the airport during the flood about as well as any picture could.

The main airport road, near Bob's Cafe.

The waters continued to rise, and the decision was made to cut away the security fence surrounding the airport so the airplanes could be moved to higher ground.

"So does this mean I don't need a gate card anymore?"

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