Some viewers of ABC’s “World News Tonight”...

Some viewers of ABC’s “World News Tonight” with Peter Jennings must have wondered whether a modern version of Noah’s ark was unfolding here.

“Southern California, after six years of too little water, suddenly has too much,” Jennings intoned Wednesday night. “In some places it has been raining at the rate of an inch or more an hour for the last four or five days, causing rock and mudslides and flash floods. . . .”

That adds up to at least 96 to 120 inches. More like a 100-century, rather than a 100-year, storm.

Probably still wouldn’t be enough to induce officials to announce that the drought is over, though.

You Can’t Drown City Hall:

Of course, a slightly smaller deluge did seem possible outside City Hall Thursday morning, where the rains were being supplemented by the lawn sprinklers for at least an hour.

A Recreation and Parks Department spokesman blamed it on “a malfunction caused by rain in a valve box.”

For Leak:

While workers were observed covering the entire roof of a new Burbank office building with sheeting material, some rascal altered the sign in front (see photo).

Nostradamus of Rock:

One eerie aspect of this series of storms, as we noted Thursday, is the billboard artwork of a flood that appeared on 1st and Main streets just a few days before the rains came. Another prophetic note is sounded in the lyrics of “Blue Boulevard” on a new album by Downey-bred Dave Alvin:

I was born by a river but it was paved with cement

I was born by a river but it was paved with cement

Still I’d stand in that dry river

And dream that I was soaking wet

Someday it’s gonna rain

Someday it’s gonna pour

Someday that ol’ dry river, Lord ,

It won’t be dry any more .

Definition of an Optimist:

The guy in shorts who was jogging through a drizzle at 4th and San Pedro streets while holding a tennis racquet.

Maybe he figured that, if nothing else, he could more easily avoid the panhandlers.

Best Storm Tip:

A broadcaster on an all-news radio station suggested that, in view of the treacherous road conditions, people should avoid going out for lunch. Instead, he said, they should order pizza or Chinese food.

For delivery by carrier pigeon?

miscelLAny:

The Carson-based Goodyear blimp was originally christened Columbia, in keeping with a onetime company tradition of naming the airships after the America’s Cup entrants of the United States. The blimp was recently renamed the Eagle--in honor of one of the company’s biggest-selling tires.