Levee report shocks city (Sacramento/Natomas)

[XemaSab]

Source: Sacramento Bee

After years of post-Hurricane Katrina pressure to improve the nation's defenses against catastrophic flooding, the federal government took a drastic step Tuesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would place Sacramento's fast-growing Natomas in a flood hazard zone, essentially halting construction of homes, offices and stores until the levees are improved.

The FEMA announcement sets a long-awaited deadline for homeowners to buy flood insurance before rates rise.

The designation was greeted with anger and shock by Sacramento city officials who have supported bold levee repair plans but oppose restrictions on building.



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/637772.html

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Buncha criminals up there in Sac... every city and county official is in the pockets of the developers. The city is angry that this FEMA decision will restrict development because they are counting on development dollars from Natomas to pay for city services for the rest of the city.

Oh, and the comments following the article are virtually all railing against the city for being greedy and short-sighted.

[tularetom]

1. Ahhnuld fired the entire state board that controlled levee construction

because they all argued for restrictions on new residential and commercial development behind these crappy levees. He then packed the board with developers and their stooges who approved all this new construction. Glad to see it didn't fool FEMA>

This situation has potential for another Katrina in the event of significant storms in northern CA. Much of this area is 20 feet lower than the surface of the river at flood stage and the levees are 100 years old.

[XemaSab]

2. In the depths of the article the Corps says

the levees could fail in a 30-year flood. :scared:

[LeftCoast]

3. As the ocean levels rise, that area will become a new inland bay

I think the levees will just delay the inevitable. Hope I'm wrong.

[Auggie]

10. This is a HUGE disaster just waiting to happen

[spotbird]

7. Damn, it's easy to fool FEMA

the situaiton must be pretty bad.

[Xithras]

8. No, this would be much, much worse than Katrina.

A catastrophic levee burst on the Delta can cause the systems inflow to cease as the rivers are redirected to flood the new area. This is bad for those being flooded, but that inflow also permits saltwater from the Suisun Bay to rush up into the normally fresh delta. The LA basin gets a very large chunk of its drinking water from the Tracy pumps, which is only a few miles up from the saltwater boundary in the bay.

In addition, there's no easy way to get that water back OUT after a flood. New Orleans has been dealing with groundwater seepage for centuries, and the city is already equipped with massive pumps that keep the water level down, and it was those pumps that cleared the water from the city after Katrina inundated it. Without the pumps the city might have stayed under water for months (you may remember the speculation about whether that might happen early on, because engineers weren't certain whether the pumps would be operable). Sacramento, like the rest of the major riverside Central Valley cities, has no similar pumping system. The vast majority of these areas have stormwater systems that drain to local evaporation ponds...which are below the levee level. In a major flood, these systems become useless.

Widespread flooding caused by a levee break could take a month or more to fully recede. When the Jones Tract flooded (a nearby island on the delta...which was flooded when a BEAVER tunneled through the levee), it took four or five months for the water to finally evaporate and saturate out, and a year until it was stable enough to be farmed again.

[Ecumenist]

4. Get this, Xemasab....I live in north Natomas

My husband, (who isn't native to California), made a choice to move here before we married. I told him that this area is what was euphemistically called, "the Natomas Basin or Bathtub". We are far enough north that we could get out before the waters reached my area but now he believes me. He never listened to me when I told him about the H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E floods through this region of the county. I cannot believe that developer actually built homes RIGHT UP AGAIN THE LEVEE THAT BORDERS THE EAST SIDE OF THE SACRAMENTO!

There are homes in along the river, even built on the levee road. The houses that are situated right next to the river literally face the 20"+ high levee. The levee, (which is called Garden Highway), is at least 5 to 10 feet ABOVE the rooflines of the houses in that area.

Last year, the developers built a series of subdivisions on land that used to be a farm and this same land had a sign that was readily apparent and readable to anyone who was driving over the Vietnam Vets Memorial bridge section of I-5. That sign read as follows, "Levee Leak" with a VERY large arrow pointing to the area of the levee boil.

Luckily, I don't own this home, though I do have 80K worth of flood insurance. I have been telling Hubs that there are going to be a WHOLE lot of wet and mad folks soon when that levee breaks. Money trumped common sense.

The land I do own is about 2 hours north of Sacramento and WAY above the flood plain. I told Baby that if he wanted to keep me in the valley, he had to put me on a hill.

[XemaSab]

11. I lived in Sacramento during the 1997 floods

We were in Land Park about a block east of the 5, and I remember water seeping under the levee, and helicopters flying back and forth all night patrolling the levee. :scared:

That and Rodeo the dog. :D

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Angelo Tsakopoulos

He's the Godfather of all developers. He has vest pockets of enormous proportions that are filled with riffraff from both parties. Doris Matsui may be his number one fan.

[XemaSab]

12. He should be shot at dawn.

x(

[BrotherBuzz]

13. Only after he has been hanged, drawn and quartered...

although it might more fitting to keelhaul him first if a levee breaks. :shrug:

[LeftyMom]

14. Do we have to wait?

:bounce:

[XemaSab]

15. I really can't get to Sacramento any sooner

and assembling a lynch mob takes TIME, ya know. :shrug:

[LeftyMom]

16. Okay, I'll be patient. Brunch at my house afterward!

It's not a new development, we should be safe.

[XemaSab]

17. I'll bring the stuff for mimosas!

:bounce:

Exacting lynch mob justice is thirsty work! :o

[Xithras]

6. GOOD

Bravo to the COE for finally doing something. Now if we could just get them to pay attention to Lathrop/Manteca (probably the highest risk development area in Northern California right now).

Developers buy land in the flood plains because it's cheap. The land is cheap BECAUSE it floods. They expect the taxpayers to subsidize the levee repairs so they can take quick profits from their bargain rate construction projects.

The city shouldn't be encouraging development there in the first place. If they are going to encourage it, either the city or the developers should be footing the bill for the levee upgrades. It's absolute garbage that they expect THE REST OF US to fix it for them.

[LeftyMom]

9. They never should have built out there, they knew all along it's a floodplain.

But the developers run this town. They could demand a permit to rape kittens and the city and the county wouldn't just do it, they'd fight over who could give a better tax credit for kitten rape.

[Ecumenist]

18. Amen LeftyMom!!

I've lived here since 1982 and I have seen my share of B-A-D floods. I could not and in some ways, still find it hard to believe that these developers were allowed to build so many homes here in Natomas. This area was rice paddies for decades before they drained them and "planted" half assed slapped together, extremely overpriced houses.

My grandfather taught me something that I have used throughout my life and that was, if there is land that nobody has built on but they only farmed instead, There's a reason for that. Alot of the land that is underneath these subdivisions were considered to be unbuildable for the folks that lived on it for the better part of 130 years.

I don't know why developers thought that somehow they could build and not have to face the inevitable flooding. They somehow believe that is they place sunken parks, (read:drainage pools) in these subdivisions, they'll not have to worry about flooding problems. I just don't get it.

The craziest folks, as far as I'm concerned, are the nuts who live on Garden highway, literally on the riverbank. Crazy insane.

[LeftyMom]

20. A coworker and I were driving down GH a few weeks ago

and there are spots out around Truxel where the levee is higher than the tops of the two and three story apartment buildings next to it.

I don't think I could sleep well at night with water over the roofline of my house mere yards away. :scared:

[Ecumenist]

21. Exactly what I said to my husband.

I would absolutely HATE to live in a place where every winter I would have to worry that I could wake up wet, floating and homeless. I cannot believe that people would even buy anything over in that area. It's not rocket science. River + Levee= recipe for disaster.

How is it that people were stupid enough to buy in an area so obviously threatened with flooding? They have to understand, even dimly, that moving into an area that close to a historically dangerous river is like playing Russian roulette. I just don't get it and will never understand how someone would put themselves, their families and everything they own right in the inevitable bullseye.


I'll never understand it, I tell ya, never understand it.

[kineneb]

19. Old Sac used to regularly flood, before Yolo bypass

and if the water gets high enough, can still flood. All one needs to do is look at a topo map to see the areas in the Sac. Valley which are flood plain (most of it, actually). I grew up in Redding, so know what the Sac. River can be like during a flood. Good luck there, folks.

I have to deal with being on Clear Lake's flood plain. I figure the lake has to really full for the water to reach our house. Mind you, a flood here would probably be several inches of water (we are about 6 blocks from the lake).

[Ecumenist]

22. Wow, where in Lake county do you live?

I used to have family who lived in Clearlake Oaks and they got flooded out....B-I-G-T-I-M-E!!

My husband and I looked at property out on Morgan Valley Road but it just seemed to rub me the wrong way. My major concern was the obvious presence of flammable chapparal. I am native to southern California and it was a yearly thing for folks to get burned out of their homes. Morgan Valley road reminded me WAY TOO MUCH of those imflammable canyons.

Another thing is that I knew that the water was REAL high in Iron. Just too much to overcome. We ended up buying a large acreage in far southwestern Tehama county. Wonderful water, beautiful views, WAY out of the floodplain and no real danger of wildfires.

[kineneb]

23. guess

the Oaks! But fairly close to Hwy 20, and not next to the lake (far too expensive for us). If the water get up this far, there are big problems. I liked the Oaks because it is a village; I am able, if I wish, to walk or bicycle to the post office or the grocery. I could see the trajectory of the economy when we moved here in 2003, and wanted to live in a country village, with enough room to have a garden. We also are not far from the fire dept.

Tehama Co., like Shasta Co. is just too warm for Hubby, he needs to be somewhere that isn't too hot or cold. I spent 22 years living in the northern Sacramento valley, and that was enough.

[Ecumenist]

24. The part of Tehama county where my land is

is rather odd where it comes to temperatures etc. For some reason, there is a VERY strong cooling wind that comes in off of the coastal range in the evening and in the opposite direction in the morning. As a matter of fact, it is routinely 10 to 20 degrees cooler on my property and the other land that is under the influence of what, for all the world, seems to be a marine influence.

I H-A-T-E hot weather and was less than enthusiastic when Himself wanted to look in Tehama county. We literally stumbled into this land and turns out that it's the envy of the area. Funnily enough, the "air conditioning" completely shuts off .25 of mile east.

This weird windy area extends into Shasta county but it is a narrow band about 38X75 miles in size. my land is about 10 miles west of Corning and frankly, I'm alot closer to the Mendocino county line than I am to the Tehama county line. It's 15 miles as the crow flies to the Yolla Bollys.

It reminds me of coast and the marine influences. If I had my druthers, I'd be somewhere between northern Sonoma and Humboldt counties.