In this story from yesterday’s Bee, it is bad news for the listed counties, (but in another story from this morning's Bee we find that the measuring devices were misread and there is not the flooding danger thought yesterday) but good news for Sacramento County that we are not in the counties listed as in a state of emergency, but that could change as the storm track shifts north, as we can see from this morning’s rain, it has.
If you have looked at the American River lately you might notice that it appears more like a ditch than a river. A ditch that is full of water that needs to be moved somewhere and is barely controlled by its banks.
The managers of the river have to use it this way because they have no big dam to hold the water back for controlled release when needed, but must release as much as they can during storms to keep space open in the small Folsom Dam, at less than 1 million acre feet of storage.
The Lower American River is described in reports discussing this flood control function as being part of the flood conveyance system.
We will all feel more secure when it is once more the river running through the Parkway, rather than the ditch it is now, and that time will only become permanent when we see a major new dam on the American River capable of holding the water generated by our storms, with storage space of at least 3 million acre feet.
Here is an excerpt.
7 counties on emergency list as flood fears grow
By Andy Furillo, Bee Capitol Bureau and Tim Eberly, Fresno Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven counties Monday and later heard from a state official that "one of the top-five weather seasons on record" has put California on the precipice of a flood disaster.
"All of our reservoirs are full, and we are not able to contain all the water," Les Harder, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources, told the governor during a briefing at the department's Flood Operations Center. "So the river system, and the levee system, is being taxed beyond its designed capacity."
Earlier, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Merced, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Stanislaus counties, which have been swamped by weeks of storms and flooding. More heavy rains are in the forecast.
Schwarzenegger declared states of emergency in 34 counties in January. In February, he declared another state of emergency covering the state's fragile levee system, and asked President Bush for a federal disaster declaration on that infrastructure. Bush has not yet responded.
During a briefing for Schwarzenegger and a handful of officials accompanying him, Harder recounted privately owned levees that have flooded homes in Merced and farmland in southern Sacramento County. He noted the water surge that as of Monday afternoon was still approaching the town of Vernalis, just south of Stockton. The Fresno County town of Firebaugh also is in danger of being flooded by the San Joaquin River, Harder added.
In Firebaugh on Monday, furious efforts were under way to avoid that fate.
City Manager Jose Antonio Ramirez said 200 workers from the California Conservation Corps descended upon the rural town to strengthen three places that are most vulnerable to flooding. The workers were being housed in the gymnasium of Firebaugh High School and fed by school officials, Ramirez said.
"The crest of the amount of water that we're expecting has not arrived yet," Ramirez said.
"That's why we're taking all these precautionary measures. The bottom line is, if we don't do this, then we're going to end up scrambling." Laborers from the corps used more than 40,000 sandbags to build a 900-foot-long wall along a winding river bank that surrounds a mobile home park and an inn. The water was still several feet from coming over the bank, but it was already much higher than normal, residents said.
