FEMA: Calif. Levees Worse Than Thought

[cal04]

A fast-growing region near the state capital is at greater risk of a potentially catastrophic flood than originally believed, and insurance rates could double for some residents, the government said Wednesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would redraw flood maps for the area that includes the sprawling Natomas neighborhood. The decision is based on the government's assessment that the levees are substandard and don't meet criteria that they can withstand floods for 100 years.

FEMA's decision for the region could be a prelude to similar designations elsewhere in California's Central Valley, home to some of the state's most explosive suburban growth in recent years. Federal and state governments are taking another look at widespread flood risks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The Natomas basin is a giant sink that is bordered by the Sacramento and American rivers and includes the Arco Arena, home to the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Flood experts say it could be submerged under more than 15 feet of water if the levees failed.

http://www.examiner.com/a-489131~FEMA__Calif__Levees_Worse_Than_Thought.html

[madfloridian]

1. I have a family member in that area...

Is there a Feather River that meets joins with those others? I know they have worried for years there in the Yuba area.

[LeftyMom]

3. Sort of.

The Feather River joins the Sacramento 20 miles north of town, the area in the article is on the northern edge of town. The area they're worried about is on the Sacramento County side of the river, in times of flood they open up the Yuba bypass and flood the area between West Sacramento and Davis on the Yolo County side to take pressure off of the populated areas.

If you give me a good idea of the area, I probably know whether or not it floods and if they've done levee work around there, since I've spent my whole life in Sacramento I pay pretty close attention.

[madfloridian]

5. Yuba City, Maryville? and the Feather and Anerican river

That is what I remember. I have the addresses but Bush has sort of distanced that part of my family. Sadly.

Edited cause I think it is Mary something, not St. Mary.

[LeftyMom]

6. Some parts of that area flood, but not the way that the area in the article does.

The thing is, in the more established communities, people have a pretty good idea of what to expect in a flood, they can tell you where there was water and where there wasn't in '88 or '96, and they know what to do to protect their property.

The people in the less established areas often don't know any of that and tend to trust the levees more than they should. In Natomas, the area discussed in the article there are places where the levees are higher than the three story buildings next to them. That would scare the piss out of me, living in the shadow of a levee like that, because if it goes, there's no warning at all. Most places you'd have plenty of time to pack your car if the water was getting high or a levee gave way upstream.

[Ecumenist]

9. Marysville in Yuba county.

I live in north Natomas and didn't want to live here but my husband, a transplant from Texas, moved to natomas following his retirement from the Air Force. I remember seeing this area under at least 6 feet of water for a number of weeks in 1986. I used to live in Rancho Cordova,about a city block from the American.

[LeftyMom]

2. Gee, the experts said not to build anything there (North Natomas)

There's a reason that area was all rice paddies. But the developers and the city council and county board of supervisors that serve as their rubber stamp had dollar signs in their eyes and they paved it all over and threw up some stucco starter castles that sell for half a mil. Nevermind that everybody knows they're in a flood plain and there's only one fire station out there. :eyes:

[tularetom]

7. A state flood control board questioned the wisdom

of allowing development in this area but the developers whined to Arnold Schickelgruber who promptly shitcanned the entire board and replaced them with developer friendly appointees. Same developers were majpr contributors to his campaign. Surprise?

[XemaSab]

8. When I'm dictator

Tsakopolous will be the first against the wall.

[LeftyMom]

12. Vote XemaSab! Early and Often!

:woohoo:

[ashling]

4. Well, duh!

Everything is wworse than FEMA thought it was! :evilgrin:

[olddad56]

10. the danger was obvious when the developers had their way..

Everyone knew the flood danger existed, but the developers pay off the politicans and the houses go up. Then the responsibility for the levee repairs fall on the homeowners. Same thing has been happening for the past few years in an area called Plumas Lake, (Arboga), south of Marysville on the Feather.

[damntexdem]

11. Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was ...

Just kidding: I don't drive a Chevy.

But when I lived in the Bay Area, I loved the drive to Sacto on SH 160, atop the levees -- no, not the same ones noted here.

[BeHereNow]

13. Hate to add more bad news, but check this out from the GD forum- Deluge predicted in CA

Courtesy of DUer, Redacted-

By Cahal Milmo
Published: 01 January 2007

A combination of global warming and the El Niño weather system is set to make 2007 the warmest year on record with far-reaching consequences for the planet, one of Britain's leading climate experts has warned.

As the new year was ushered in with stormy conditions across the UK, the forecast for the next 12 months is of extreme global weather patterns which could bring drought to Indonesia and leave California under a deluge.

The warning, from Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, was one of four sobering predictions from senior scientists and forecasters that 2007 will be a crucial year for determining the response to global warming and its effect on humanity.

<snip>

The warning of the escalating impact of global warming was echoed by Jim Hansen, the American scientist who, in 1988, was one of the first to warn of climate change. In an interview with The Independent, Dr Hansen predicted that global warming would run out of control and change the planet for ever unless rapid action is taken to reverse the rise in carbon emissions.

Dr Hansen said: "We just cannot burn all the fossil fuels in the ground. If we do, we will end up with a different planet. I mean a planet with no ice in the Arctic, and a planet where warming is so large that it's going to have a large effect in terms of sea level rises and the extinction of species."

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article211687...

Link to GD discussion thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3036105

Prepare to be "Katina'd" California
Personally, I live near the hills and plan on
plotting my escape route now...
I sure as heck am not going to count on
my tax dollars being spent to help us.

[Xithras]

14. Welcome to the valley, deal with it.

We have the water from 18 different rivers flowing through some of the flattest land in the country. I'm sitting in the middle of it, 80 miles from the sea, and yet my home is only 18 feet above sea level. When the land is that flat, and you have that much water flowing through it, floods are normal. There was one big flood here in the 1800's that turned the valley into a 300 mile long lake...while the dams may have reduced the risk of that happening again, it cannot be completely eliminated.

Personally, I blame the builders. There are plenty of higher elevation properties available outside of the floodplains to build on, but the developers chose the dirt cheap river bottom swamplands because it cost them less money. They bought and paid for their pet politicians to rubber stamp their building projects, and walked away laughing once the properties are sold.

The only way to protect the existing homes would be to build a massive new levee system alongside the rivers. That would canyonize the rivers and be environmentally catastrophic for the region, and is a move I seriously oppose. These people just need to deal with the fact that they bought in a flood zone.

And understand that my home sits only about 1000 feet from an un-leveed portion of the Stanislaus river, so I'm not exactly out of that flood zone myself. I understand that a risk of flooding accompanies my decision to live here, and I accept that fact.

[kineneb]

15. Yes. Most of Sac valley is flood plain, from Red Bluff on south.

Those not familiar with the area should get a topo map of the valley and study it. Before all the "water reclamation" projects, the whole area regularly flooded. Since the 1930s, lots of dams have been built on the main rivers. In a really wet year, they can only control the river flows so much. I have seen flood waters going over the top of the fully raised drum gates at Shasta Dam.

My grandfather had a fond place in his heart for Shasta Dam. During the dark days of the Depression, he was one of the workers who helped build it. Before that, he had worked at the Kennett copper smelter; the remnants of the town of Kennett is now under 500' of water at the bottom of the lake.