Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: (Published Friday, Jan. 8, 2016) 
  
 Not since the Los Angeles River was lined with concrete decades ago has it ever overflowed its banks. 
  
 But now, after the first week of El Niño-influenced storms in what is forecast to be an extremely wet winter, officials see need to, in effect, raise the top of miles of riverbank by installing prefab barriers. 
  
 It will give the river another four feet to rise before overtopping the bank. 
  
 "We're preparing for a worst-case scenario," said Col. Kirk Griggs, commander of the LA district of the Army Corps of Engineers. Three days earlier, as the year's first series of storms was drenching the southland, Griggs had declared a district emergency. 
  
 Griggs joined Mayor Eric Garcetti and County Supervisor Hilda Solis, along with other officials, for a riverside briefing on precautions being taken. 
  
 The concern is focused on three miles of riverbank on the stretch of river that parallels the 5 Freeway near the border of Los Angeles and Glendale. Vegetation in the river bottom has significantly reduced the river's capacity, Griggs said. Between Colorado Street and Fletcher Drive, the original design capacity of 78,000 cubic feet per second is now estimated to be only 40,000 cubic square feet —-barely half — according to the Corps. 
  
 Adding the barrier is projected to increase the capacity up to 60,000 cubic square feet. Bringing it all the way back to full capacity will require removing vegetation. 
  
 Upriver, near the Victory Boulevard crossing, vegetation has reduced capacity from 40,000 cubic square feet to 25,000, according to Corps figures. The plan there is to restore full capacity by removing native vegetation along with nonnative, Griggs said. 
  
 Peak recorded river flows during the rains this past week remained well below capacity. However, there were breaks between the storms, allowing the river level to drop. El Niño winters have been known to produce rain nearly continuously for days on end. 
  
 Even so, officials said it is unlikely runoff levels would reach capacity, but considered the $3.1 million barriers a worthwhile precaution. 
  
 "If it floods there is risk for significant damage," said Mayor Garcetti. 
  
 "I'm definitely on the side of abundance of caution," said Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, whose 13th district includes a stretch of the river. 
  
 Similar barriers, manufactured by Hesco, were used to shield Fargo, North Dakota from flooding in 2009. The barriers for Los Angeles are being shipped and expected to arrive Saturday, but installation could take several weeks, according to Griggs. He is hopeful they will be in place for February, historically the Southland's wettest month. 
  
 Apart from the barriers, the Corps has allocated half a million dollars to an account for removal of vegetation, but will need additional funds for clearing other stretches of the river, Griggs said. ||||| The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin work next week to temporarily raise the banks along nearly three miles of the Los Angeles River to improve flood protection during El Nino storms, officials announced Friday, just days after the watercourse roared to life during heavy rains. 
  
 Temporary barriers to be put in place with $3.1 million in emergency federal funding will increase the river's capacity north of downtown in a stretch that spans the east side of Griffith Park to Elysian Valley paralleling Interstate 5. 
  
 The barriers are something like giant sandbags—fabric containers with a wire mesh structure that are filled with earth. Lt. Col. Kirk Gibbs, Los Angeles district commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the barriers would arrive in the city on Saturday. 
  
 About $500,000 in additional funding will be used for work farther upstream to remove vegetation that impedes the flow of water. 
  
 The Los Angeles River runs 51 miles from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach Harbor. 
  
 Lined in concrete except for areas with sandy bottoms that allow vegetation to grow, the urban river usually has just a trickle of water and is often the target of ridicule. The renowned architect Frank Gehry is working on a master plan to restore large sections to a natural condition with connections to parks and other public areas. 
  
 But it serves a major flood-control function when rain falls on its 870-square-mile watershed. Disastrous floods with millions of dollars in damage and many deaths in the early 20th century led to the decision to channelize it. 
  
 "Our river is unique—most of the year it runs nearly dry, and then during the rainy season it runs in powerful torrents as we've seen this week," Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. 
  
 The funding came about rapidly. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors requested the funds in a letter sent Tuesday to Congress and the Army Corps of Engineers. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles district of the Corps declared an emergency to its headquarters and the funding was granted, the mayor's office said. 
  
 The Los Angeles City Council will have to approve a motion allowing entry to the river levees but work is expected to begin next week. The work may close some of the river's bike and pedestrian paths. 
  
 Explore further: As rain pummels California, some see a way to fight drought ||||| The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has received emergency funding to erect temporary barriers along the banks of the Los Angeles River to guard against flooding from future El Niño storms, officials announced Friday. 
  
 But the corps still has not received $4.5 million that officials say is needed to clear debris and do other flood-control work in the river. 
  
 L.A. County officials were startled to learn earlier this week that the corps had not obtained the money, which was requested for pre-storm work between the Burbank Western Channel and California 2. 
  
 To help fill the hole in funding, the corps' Los Angeles district has shifted about half a million dollars that would have gone to other maintenance projects to the L.A. River basin. 
  
 See the most-read stories this hour >> 
  
 Col. Kirk Gibbs of the local office said Friday that while $4 million is still needed, the district received an emergency infusion of $3.1 million from headquarters to build 4-foot protective barriers along three miles of the river, from Griffith Park to Elysian Valley. 
  
 The measure would increase channel capacity and reduce the risk of flooding, Gibbs added. 
  
  
  
 "We're preparing for a worst-case scenario," he said. "We feel we need to do that, and we owe it to the residents." 
  
 City and county officials praised the emergency funding and the proposed barriers. 
  
 "We're hoping for the best, but we're going to continue to prepare for the worst," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. "... If [the river] floods, there is risk of significant damage, not to mention real and immediate danger to Angelenos." 
  
 "We don't have to wait for damage," L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said of the planned flood protection. 
  
 On Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors sent a letter to members of Congress and to the assistant secretary of the Army calling on them to expedite the funding for maintenance in the river basin. 
  
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Output:
A city that's made headlines for having too little water is preparing to spend $3.1 million to deal with a potential excess of it, NBC Los Angeles reports. LA officials are worried that this year's El Nino will force the Los Angeles River to do something highly unusual: spill its banks. "We're preparing for a worst-case scenario," says Col. Kirk Griggs with the Army Corps of Engineers, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times. "We feel we need to do that, and we owe it to the residents." To prevent potential flooding, the Army Corps of Engineers is installing temporary barriers to increase capacity along a 3-mile stretch of the river next to Interstate 5, NBC reports. The temporary barriers, which are being paid for with federal emergency money, are similar to "giant sandbags," Phys.org reports. They'll add an extra 4 feet of clearance to the river's banks, according to NBC. The river was lined with concrete decades ago, and plants growing along the bottom of that stretch of the Los Angeles River have cut its capacity nearly in half. The temporary barriers will give some of that capacity back. Officials think it's unlikely the river will flood, but they'd rather be safe than sorry. "If [the river] floods, there is risk of significant damage, not to mention real and immediate danger to Angelenos," says Mayor Eric Garcetti. Frequent flooding before the river was paved killed many people and caused millions in damage in the early 1900s, Phys.org reports. (This year's El Nino could rival the scary one of 1997.)