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.