SACRAMENTO, Calif — The recent storms that have passed through, and the ones still to come, have caused local rivers to rise dangerously. Thankfully, our cities and towns are protected from flooding by massive amounts of levees.
But who monitors those levees? ABC10's Walt Gray went out on "levee patrol" with Jose Ramirez, an expert with the American River Flood Control District, to look for problems.
"We just had a sinkhole on H street by Sac State," Ramirez said.
This is the most critical time of the year for levee patrols in Northern California. Water is high and running fast. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has a whopping 1,500 miles of levees, and, in spite of billions spent on shoring up many of the aging ones, Sacramento is one of the most at-risk cities in America for river flooding.
Right now is the most critical time of year is for levees to be challenged by winter's fury. One geologist said a few years ago that there's a 64 percent chance of a catastrophic levee failure in the Sacramento area or Delta region. That could happen during a massive El Nino storm or earthquake causing a levee breach. Today, it's more about catching little things before they get bigger.
Lately, pounding rain on saturated levee soil has caused erosion. And after winter rain comes the spring runoff of snow in the Sierra, which will lead to more rushing water cascading down rivers and levees in heavily populated areas.
Tim Kerr, General Manager of the American River Flood Control District, said experts with the American River Flood Control District have been out looking for potential problems, which include "cracks in the levees, levee distress, seepage on the land side of the levees, boils, rodent damage and downed trees restricting our access."
The Sacramento region owes a tip of the cap to Hurricane Katrina. After what New Orleans went though, it spurred legislation to upgrade our levee system.
"Sacramento and New Orleans face some of the largest flood threat in our nation," Kerr said. "For Sacramento, we're at the bottom of a giant basin — it's like a big bathtub and we're the drain."
With more storms on the way and no consistent sunny days predicted until mid-March, levees will be watched extra closely for any signs of potential failure.
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