Good news about how your property survived the deluges. I thought that you were about finished with your drainage project.
We got hit with the October rain, but the one before and after Christmas was the biggie. We had like 18 days of highly measureable rain during that period.
My close to two decade drainage project held up. Our dry creek which is about 5' wide and from 6 inches deep to 3 foot deep that re routes the water coming off our hill and away from our water did a good job as did the older stuff.
Tell me about Santa Barbara Sedge. How big does it grow and is it realitively fire proof in our dry summers. I can't irrigate in the area that I might plant it.
Carex barbarae is a perennial (photos). It grows dark green 18-24 inches high. You can grow clumps and divide them into as many as fifty nodes in a year. They transplant very well into poor silty soils. They then propagate from rhizomes. It grows into Southern Oregon, but I suspect it is sensitive to salt (see the map at the link). I don't know about its fire tolerance, but since the Indians used to burn the places from which it originates, and because the plant spreads from rhizomes I suspect it would do fine after a fire as long as the ground was dry enough when it burned.
This page has information on native grasses you might also find useful. The seed is expensive, but because they are perennials that seed annually, you get a lot of bang for your buck if you know how to mow preferentially.