Storms swell NorCal rivers to highest levels in seven years (Flood warnings, rivers swollen)

ap on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 12/28/05 | Don Thompson - ap

[tubebender]

All North Coast Rivers are at flood stage. They are starting to move people to shelters from some low lying areas.

101 is closed at Confusion Hill south of Garberville due to a perennial slide area there. They will start a bypass across the Eel River next year and complete it in 2009. Two bridges and lots of dirt to move. The EIRs are done but lawsuits are expected.

We have had about 20" in the last two months. 3" in the last 36 hours. We could lose power or fiber optic cable at any time...

[Arizona Carolyn]

Democratic Party Politics or Sierra Club and friends????

[tubebender]

You would have to scrape their fingernails to find any difference...

[SierraWasp]

Substantial? Really? Like give me a range of these "substantial" percentages, please... (Oh! And the pavement in NOT interminable so the incoming liquid reaches that "duff" and stuff in a relatively short distance with good grading and drainage, don'tcha think???

[antaresequity]

27 foot plus waves jacking on the patch...

http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent⊂=nowcast&units=metric&tz=UTC&pub=public&map_stati=1,2,3

[Carry_Okie]

Like give me a range of these "substantial" percentages, please...

I've seen vegetation cut peak flows in half.

And the pavement in NOT interminable so the incoming liquid reaches that "duff" and stuff in a relatively short distance with good grading and drainage, don'tcha think???

Typically pavement concentrates flows via drains and pipes while interrupting far less destructive sheet wash. That concentration does substantial damage, particularly downcutting. It also redirects flows and bypasses adsorption areas.

That problem can be mitigated somewhat via more modern drainage design in a manner similar to the way forest skid roads are now constructed, that is, if the engineer has a clue about how to use the lay of the land to reduce flow concentration (they usually don't). Liability for hydroplaning is one reason the designs abet landslides. Most drainage systems these days look as if they were designed by lawyers.

[Carry_Okie]

D'y know why they call it "The Potato Patch"?

It's scary.

The reason is that when 30 foot waves come into a sand bar under 25 feet of water, you can see the rocks on the bottom.

They're white.

[SierraWasp]

Ya, well, those two, plus Friends of the River, plus the American River CONservancy, plus the commercial whitewater rafting corporations with all their lefty hefty friends swarming over the CA Sierran landscape like a pleague of incestuous locusts!!!

Carter got pist because CA went for Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 election and Governor Jerry (Mediteranian Fruit Fly) Brown whispered in Jimmah's ear at the behest of his rafting buddies to defund the dam on which 600+ million 1977 dollars were already poured into the 2/3rds complete project!!!

You can tell that I despise all these pukes, can't you?

[kilowhskey]

Thanks for posting that link. Modern technology is a far cry from KHB-49. This gray-haired sea dog appreciates the update.

Love your tagline, too!

[SierraWasp]

Why they be white? Are you talkin bout the out flow just as the wave crests?

[Carry_Okie]

Why they be white?

Dunno. That's what I was told.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to be there to confirm it myself. That place is nasty even on a good day.

[antaresequity]

That is an incredibly awesome resource if you spend anytime at all offshore in California...

An indispensable resource...

Here is another one...NowCast models for tides and currents....

http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/

At this site you plot all sorts of data: currents, wind, gusts, tide heights....etc etc...

[SierraWasp]

"Most drainage systems these days look as if they were designed by lawyers."

Actually, it's FEAR of allegators and litigators, don'tcha know?

I now realize that when you said that about duff and stuff that you were thinking of the absorbtion in somewhat natural areas while I was thinking of drainage/runoff in mass pad grading site complete with roofs, bare dirt and paved streets waiting for homeowners to come and roll out ye old NV sod!!!

One of the ideas that enthralls the militant GovernMental EnvironMental Nazis that convinced Arnold to create the Sierra-Nevada CONservancy is that the Sierra is a giant sponge and that if we'd quit all timber removal and other economic development, that we wouldn't need man-made flood control so that rafting could continue unabated.

This even though they beat down river banks like a bunch of city slicker cattle in a drunken stupor, oblivious to local landowner's rights and concerns!!!

[SierraWasp]

I like your tagline best!!!

[tubebender]

Most drainage systems these days look as if they were designed by lawyers.

They are if you are talking about Cal-Trans. A friend is doing the engineering and EIRs for the culvert replacements for Salmon restoration and he explained to me that the legal dept has the final say on all projects because Cal-Trans self insures for liability and the legal beagles do the risk assessments...

[Carry_Okie]

A friend is doing the engineering and EIRs for the culvert replacements for Salmon restoration and he explained to me that the legal dept has the final say on all projects because Cal-Trans self insures for liability and the legal beagles do the risk assessments...

And because of the cost, many roads don't get repaired, so they slide, causing... siltation in creeks.

The system is broken, but hey, the lawyers get full retirement on nearly full pay!

WASS

[little jeremiah]

How far south of Garberville is that? Is it going to be closed for a long time?

(If you know.)

[CyberAnt]

My sister was planning on driving over to San Diego from Tucson - this storm doesn't look good for making that trip through the mountains.

Do you know how I can get the weather for the route - all I can find is a southwest region - and it's not definitive enough to tell if the trip would be in the unsafe range.

[Carry_Okie]

How far south of Garberville is that?

From what I can tell on GoogleMaps, about 22 miles.

[birbear]

The last significant flooding in Northern California was during the El Nino year of 1998 and a year earlier, when three people died after levees collapsed north of Sacramento. The danger is lower this time because there was relatively little snow in the Sierra Nevada to be melted by the warm rains.

I was there (north of Sacramento) when the levees collapsed. We had to evacuate for several days. Evac shelters are icky. I slept in my parents car, and as soon as we could, we headed to the Bay Area to find a motel.

I remember at the time of the evacuation, the police going up and down our street with their PA system, urging us all to leave. My dad took that moment in time to start sorting his sock drawer. My mom and I were kind of frantic. He just kind of ignored the situation for about 30 mins, and then decided that perhaps it was time to get the heck out of Dodge. It took three hours to traverse about 7 miles because of the stream of cars leaving town.