Northern Californians - Have you washed/blown away yet???

[bmccasland]

Xeney - how are the levees holding up? After Katrina, I found out that the two cities most likely to flood were Sacramento and New Orleans - for poor maintenance of the levees by the locals. Corps builds them, but it's up to the locals to maintain them, and Congress to fund the big maintenance jobs. Which we all know they didn't for us in N.O. (they are now). I hope Congress sent some $$ your way too, I know some of the river levees were in sore need of repair. Back in the gold rush days, beautiful downtown Sac would regularly flood in the winter. In fact the Yolo Bypass was constructed to help this out.

Hope all y'all out west in that storm system are holding up, and staying dry. On the other hand, the snow pack will mean more water in the summer. Not sure if it's a drought buster yet. One good storm does not fill reservoirs.

[Trek420]

Xeney - how are the levees holding up? After Katrina, I found out that the two cities most likely to flood were Sacramento and New Orleans - for poor maintenance of the levees by the locals. Corps builds them, but it's up to the locals to maintain them, and Congress to fund the big maintenance jobs. Which we all know they didn't for us in N.O. (they are now). I hope Congress sent some $$ your way too, I know some of the river levees were in sore need of repair. Back in the gold rush days, beautiful downtown Sac would regularly flood in the winter. In fact the Yolo Bypass was constructed to help this out.

I'm a CA native and did not know till recently that back in the day the entire central valley both North and South was wetlands.

If you'd have come up and over the Sierra Nevada and looked down into what is now one of the richest agricultural areas in the US before we (I say we, though I'm 1st and 2nd generation American respectively) messed it up, uh I mean settled it you'd have seen a vast wetland including territory for migratory birds etc.

http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildwor...0801_full.html

That's a lot of water to hold back.

Some is diverted to agricultural use, some goes to So. Cal but between development encroaching on wetlands and the deteriorating levee system it's a huge problem. All we need is a major quake and ....

[xeney]

Yeah, since Katrina we've had major levee work either happening or being fought over. (Mostly the latter -- it's levee safety versus environmental/ecosystem concerns -- I believe the issue is that the feds don't think you need both but the state would like to protect the ecosystems along the rivers.)

There was a levee break up in Nevada but as far as I know everything is fine down here with only local flooding. My particular area is pretty safe ... we are right by the American River, but floods there are controlled by the Folsom Dam, so there would have to be a really catastrophic failure to affect us, and we would have some warning. (Recent federal redistricting actually resulted in us not being required to carry flood insurance at all even though we are spitting distance from the river, although of course we still do carry it.)

But before the dam our house was in the middle of a flood plain. We have a "highwater bungalow" -- it's a 1914 Craftsman bungalow with a full-story above-ground basement that was designed to flood in the winter.

[bmccasland]

Xeney - our foreparents were right to build raised basement places, structures that were built to withstand periodic flooding. Here's hoping you remain dry! And yes, oh by-gawd yes, keep that flood insurance!! People here are still battling with their insurance - basically if it involves a flood, homeowners doesn't want to cover it - even if you had roof damage! Insurance is in the business to make money for their stock holders first, then provide a service to those of us who actually pays for the policies. So if they can find a way out of paying, they will.

Fortunately after Katrina, my house didn't flood, so I only filed a homeowner's claim. Then a year later I get a statement from FEMA indicating a flood claim was filed on my home, to the tune of $45K. Took me a few months to clear that up!

Have they said anything to how this storm system will help the snowpack? Or is it too early to tell?

[maillotpois]

We're still without power and PG&E won't even give an estimate as to when it will be back on. Thank heaven for the generator. That was a great investment. We don't run it through the night as it is a bit loud. But it keeps things somewhat sane (still no internet or cable access yet).

I'm at our in law's right now. They're up a different canyon than the one we live in. They've had power for 2 days.

[jobob]

There's snow in the East Bay hills.

I snagged this image off the Mt. Hamilton HamCam website.

[Trek420]

Oh, you did not ride up there and snag that shot for us? There's supposed to be another storm rolling in