This article from yesterday’s Bee was reassuring, but also points out that the high water in the Parkway will continue, as the article noted: “Tuesday's storm came on top of above-average snowfall in the northern Sierra, running more than 150 percent of normal, setting up a delicate juggling act this spring, said Gary Bardini, chief of hydrology for the state Department of Water Resources.”
Here is an excerpt.
Major flooding called unlikely
Downpour causes many smaller woes
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Wednesday, April 5, 2006
With the weather forecast stuck on ceaselessly soggy, emergency officials Tuesday were keeping a close eye on neighborhood streams and major rivers, and predicting that the region appears likely to avoid serious flooding - for now.
The area isn't escaping a steady drumbeat of smaller problems, though, from mountain mudslides and dismayed farmers to anxious sandbaggers.
The misery was widespread. In Calavaras County, near Valley Springs, the Peach Tree Pond Dam failed Tuesday night, forcing authorities to go door to door and evacuate between 60 and 100 homes in a subdivision surrounding La Contenta Golf Course.
The dam breech was reported about 9:30 p.m. and confirmed by an engineer 90 minutes later, said Sharon Porrence, a Calaveras County spokeswoman.
In Merced, Jamestown and Oakdale, weather problems forced nearly 200 people from their homes.
In the foothills, a creek a few inches deep streamed through buildings in the small town of El Dorado, outside Placerville.
"There really isn't any part of the state that's been untouched by this," said Andy Morin, a senior hydrologist with the National Weather Services' River Forecast Center.
Highway 50 remained narrowed to a single lane because of dangerous movement within Monday's mudslide near White Hall, and Tuesday a smaller slide farther west tumbled into a truck, overturning it but leaving the driver uninjured.
While no single storm has been a drencher, so many washed through the region in March and so many days of moderate rain are forecast that key ingredients are in place for potential trouble.
"The rivers are high. The ground is completely saturated. Everything that falls will run off," said Teresa Stahl, Sacramento County's assistant emergency operations coordinator. And the storms are warmer, bringing more rain in higher elevations, melting snow and increasing the runoff.
Tuesday's storm came on top of above-average snowfall in the northern Sierra, running more than 150 percent of normal, setting up a delicate juggling act this spring, said Gary Bardini, chief of hydrology for the state Department of Water Resources.
"This poses a concern now because we have snowmelt coming right after rainfall," he said. "The reservoir operators now will have to try to work the rainfall out of the reservoirs and make space for the snowmelt, which is to come in right behind it."
