What is sad is that this latest flurry of work is only bringing the levees in our area to a 100 year level of protection. New Orleans had a 250 year level of protection.
While repairing the levees is crucial, we need to keep our eye on the gold standard—500 year level of flood protection—and the only project being put forward that provides that to Sacramento is the building of the Auburn Dam
Pocket levee repairs will bring safety and savings
By Deb Kollars - Bee Staff WriterPublished 12:00 am PST Friday, December 1, 2006
Over the past year, loud cranes, barges and work crews were a daily -- and often nightly -- presence on levees surrounding the Greenhaven-Pocket neighborhood.
But in recent weeks, the pounding, trenching and dumping of monumental amounts of rock settled down as repairs on numerous levee sites neared completion.
As a result, about 100,000 people living in the Pocket, Meadowview, Executive Airport and other south area neighborhoods are heading into the rainy season with significantly more flood protection than they had a year ago. By spring, they also should be experiencing something residents of other Sacramento neighborhoods already enjoy: lower flood insurance rates.
"We've done about two years' worth of work in eight months," said Brandon Muncy, chief of civil works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Sacramento District. "It has been very difficult and very ambitious."
In all, nearly $60 million worth of levee repairs have occurred, mostly in the Greenhaven-Pocket area along the Sacramento River, which wraps around the neighborhood.
The work will bring 100-year flood protection to southern areas of the city; 100-year protection means levees are expected to withstand huge storms that have a 1-in-100 chance of occurring any given year.
