Year: 2006

River Road – Water Levels Comparison

Last summer my friend and I would ride along the river road. This is one of the places we would stop for a break and to ask any fisherpersons coming in what they caught. For a reference my friend is over 6′ tall.
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This evening I drove there to see if the water levels had come down enough to pull off and snap a few pictures. It had receeded enough that I was able to pull off the levee road enough to take some pictures. Last week the water was up to the levee the road sets on.

Same spot tonight.

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Delta Facts

Did you know:

The Sacramento-San Joaquin delta takes more than 40 percent of California’s rainfall and covers some 280,000 hectares (700,000 acres). It is the main source of water for about 23 million people, of California’s 34 million population. But most of the land is below sea level and is protected by more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) of levees.

Todays National Weather Service’s Flood Statement:

CAC033-067-095-101-113-115-191525

FLOOD STATEMENT – LOWER SACRAMENTO RIVER SYSTEM
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA
825 AM PDT TUE APR 18 2006

…A FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE YOLO BYPASS AT LISBON..

The situation clearly is threatening, which is why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in two dozen communities that could be devastated by breaks in the levees. He has appealed to the Bush administration to declare a state of emergency and provide up to $100 million in federal emergency relief.

Amazingly, the administration’s response, expressed by Lynn Scarlett, acting director of the Department of the Interior, was to praise Schwarzenegger for doing such a great job that she did not see any need for emergency federal aid to shore up the levees. . ..

. ..Perhaps the Bush administration will respond after there are several breaks in California’s levees and communities and farmland are inundated. But it appears that for now the federal government will ignore a potential disaster. ..

Conta Costa Times

Well now here is a jewel, considering the acting Secretary already told us that we did not have a need for emergency assistance:

Acting Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett said on the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that the federal government is very concerned about the threat posed by quakes and floods to the levees in California‘s delta.

“There are thousands of miles of levees in need of repair,” Scarlett said on Tuesday, rejecting criticism by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘s office that the federal government does not take seriously the threat to California‘s levees, even after the floodwaters overwhelmed levees in New Orleans last year.

President Bush will be here in California and meet with Gov. Schwarzenegger. He will then visit West Sacramento on Saturday but Arnold will not be with him. Maybe George knows a levee break in the area would more than likely flood areas on the opposite side of the river.

Washington Doesn’t See Urgent Need to Repair California Levees

This tends to belie the theory that President Bush and associates let or wanted New Orleans to flood because of it’s high population of blacks and lower economic status citizenry. Lynn Scarlett, the acting director of the Department of the Interior said she was impressed with how well the California levee system has held up and that she did not see any need for emergency federal assistance to shore up our levees. I now firmly believe that Bush and the present administration are stupid. I can not call them ignorant, after all, Bush knows the results of dilapidated levee systems , Scarlett took an aerial tour over Northern California, and last month, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff flew over the area. Our state officials and Governor have spent a great deal of time and effort to fully explain the state of our levees and the consequences of not fixing the problem. At least here in California our State is doing the best it can to keep up on the deteriorating situation.

source:News 10 ABC
On February 24, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for California’s levee system and signed an Executive Order instructing DWR to repair 24 critical levee erosion sites in the counties of Colusa, Sacramento, Solano, Yolo, and Yuba. Scarlett said Monday the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with Congress to “explore what that amount might be, but in terms of money to upgrade levees now, they are at the levels commensurate with current needs” Read more info on the Army Corps responisbilities

Perhaps the rest of the country can get along without the crops grown here in the Central Valley. Extending almost 450 miles north to south and between the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada, the Central Valleys alluvial plain contains the largest irrigated agricultural area west of the Rocky Mountains. We have roughly half of the state’s farmland, two-thirds of the cropland and almost 75 percent of the irrigated land. A number of U.S. crops are grown exclusively in our valley – almonds, figs, kiwifruit, nectarines, olives, persimmons, pistachios, prunes, raisins and walnuts. Five of our counties are the top producers of agricultural exports.Call us fruits and nuts, but, we are prepared for earthquake disasters so converting/constructing flood preparedness kits really is a bit easier. I added an axe in the attic and more survival type gear to our kits. Last season’s hurricanes just reinforced my theory that in a disaster self-sufficiency is of utmost importance and if any governmental help comes it will be an unexpected extra. If we experience a disaster comparable to the devastation along the Gulf Coast, be assured, I will not give up any fruits and nuts to outsiders for a long, long time.

Perhaps Bush and associates should consider the National benefits, explore in the terms of money the benefits of protecting the Nations major agricultural source from flooding and the devastation, after all, little Georgie should eat his vegetables.

Animation explaining levee erosion (WMV)

Weather, Global Warming or A Natural Cycle, and Trailers.

I have not stopped thinking about hurricane Katrina or it’s aftermath. Nor have I failed to notice that the weather patterns across the country have been out of “normal” range.

Here in Sacramento we are still watching the rivers rise and keeping levee patrols going. We finally had some sunshine yesterday and today. Sacramento had it’s coldest March EVER recorded this year and California had above average rainfall. Later, the snow melt will prove interesting. Parts of the Northwest at more than 150 percent of normal. Much of the Southwest had less than 50 percent of normal winter snowpack at the end of March. In the mid west the tornados are hitting out of season. Wildfires burning in Texas this winter. Much of the Southwest had less than 50 percent of normal winter snowpack at the end of March. Just plain out of the ordinary – strange.

Hurricane season is coming. How many people are still living in trailers along the gulf coast (about 100,000 displaced people counting those now in mobil homes)- lots. It does not take a strong wind force to tear apart a trailer. Since I no longer have “good faith” in my govenrment I am tending to believe that the seriousness of global warming is being downplayed by governmental institutions. Many researchers believe that hurricanes are getting worse because of global warming. On the other side of the ring we have the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) stance that hurricanes are worse because of a natural cycle.

In Anderson Coopers words: ” So, I’m wondering — with the next hurricane season around the corner, what would you ask the head of FEMA?” CNN 360 Hurricane Countdown is FEMA Ready?