We are not seeing flooding off these rivers,” Salyers said. “All of the work that we’ve done along the American and Sacramento Rivers are helping the current situation. The Army Corps and state have been upgrading about 45 miles of levees over a 5-year period, and work on the final 2.8 miles is scheduled to begin in the spring.Īmong the structural upgrades are raising levee heights, boring as deep as 150 feet to reinforce levees to prevent seepage and piling rocks on riverbanks to reduce erosion. Major improvements have been made in the region and more are underway, thanks to about $1.8 billion in state and federal funds. Even now, federal, state and local authorities are in the midst of upgrading those defenses, particularly in the Sacramento region, where multi-year, multi-billion-dollar projects are underway. The state’s capital city was built in a floodplain and requires an extensive system of dams and levees to protect it. The Central Valley has a long, painful history of deluges: The Great Flood of 1861-2, triggered by weeks of rain and snow, is still remembered as the worst disaster to ever befall California, inundating the entire valley, killing thousands of people statewide and devastating the economy. “At the larger scale, our system is much more ready for high-water events.” “The investments we’ve made to the flood system have absolutely helped,” said Gary Lippner, the Department of Water Resources’ deputy director of flood management and dam safety. The breeching of the levees shut down Highway 99 and stranded motorists.īut the region’s two major reservoirs held, and the Sacramento and American rivers did not experience major floods. The levees, constructed to reclaim the land for agriculture, are generally rated only to handle a 10-year flood, according to Sacramento County officials. Portions of privately owned levees on the river gave way, flooding nearby areas. So far, this winter’s storms have been severe but not catastrophic: The New Year’s Eve storm “stalled out” over the watershed of the Cosumnes River. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters An aerial view shows flooded fields off River Road near Locke on Jan. Of that, the state’s responsibility ranges from $1.8 billion to $2.8 billion.Īn estimated $25 to $30 billion in funding over 30 years could help the state “avoid the astronomical cost of catastrophic flooding in the Central Valley estimated to be as high as $1 trillion, in addition to an incalculable toll on lives and public well-being,” the plan says. “It’s a bathtub, basically,” said Beth Salyers, deputy district engineer for the federal Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento.Īn estimated 1.3 million people and $223 billion worth of property in the Central Valley are protected by the state-federal systems of levees, dams and other structures.Ĭalifornia spends $48 million annually for operating flood protections but needs much more - “$3.2 billion over the next five years of implementation,” according to the state’s Central Valley Flood Protection Plan, a document produced in 2012 and updated last month. Last weekend’s storms have already tested the flood-prevention infrastructure across the region, which sits at the confluence of two major rivers and bears the brunt of heavy rains.

Raising questions about whether California’s elaborate system of flood protections will hold, another dangerous storm is barreling toward the Sacramento Valley, where rains already punched through some levees and floods killed at least one person.

One report says the Central Valley needs $30 billion in improvements over 30 years. As a “bomb cyclone” descends on Northern California tonight, storms have already tested a region highly vulnerable to flooding.

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