Even then, a visitor might see little resembling nature in Southern California's rivers, often barely more than streams confined to concrete ditches running through the urban sprawl.

It was a concrete ditch four feet across and six feet deep.

Leaving the tailgate up, I scrambled two or three metres down the side of the concrete ditch and into the surging storm water.

The bus overturned on top of the Tahoe, pinning it to a concrete ditch alongside the highway.

Losses suffered by businesses and individuals were so great that a visitor can almost sympathize with the community's reaction - to imprison the river in a concrete ditch.

Luckily, he reaches the concrete ditch with the blazing petrol and survives.

I think we can control this driveway situation simply by treating it as a permanent watercourse, accepting that and installing a slaunchwise steel-reinforced concrete ditch alongside.

She eventually found herself falling into a concrete ditch on the side of the highway but got back on her bike to finish 59th.

Open sewage runs in a concrete ditch in front of her house.

She eventually fell into a concrete ditch on the side of the highway.