What a great place to build a home

[Jimmypoo]

hal wrote:
This is region is second only to NOLA for potential of catastrophic flooding...

Most of those Garden HWY homes are safe from real flooding, but many are not. Happy that I now live within a mile of the river (American, not the Sacramento), but up high on the bluffs. Most of my life I lived within one of these flood zones, but now, I'm just above it all.

Was considering moving to a little town in the delta area... drove around to get a feel for the area, then got a look at the BIG picture. There's the house I'm thinking about... there's the levee (the house is lower than the base of the levee) and there's the ONLY road leading back to civilization... Trying to imagine that tiny little road while the area is flooding was a little scary...

Not bad at all if you have a few inflatable boats (like SEALs use) as well as an inflatable ring around the house,
and explosive bolts to set the house free from its foundation. (You'd also need a thick rubber flooring)

[freeradical]

We are also well above our average snowpack level.

We have the equivalent of 37" of rain as snow in the mountains.


http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/DLYSWEQ

[SDGuy]

Ken Sp. wrote:
I think that those homes, just like the parking under Chevy's on the river are supposed to be designed with the lower level to be non habitable...

But, I thought if you drove your Chevy to the levee, the levee would be dry....perfect for kickin' back with a little whiskey & rye

[davester]

freeradical wrote:
Despite all of this rain, Folsom Lake is only at 72% of capacity.

Lake Shasta is at 92% of capacity.

Both lakes are well above the % of average capacity.


http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/reservoirs/RES

They've been letting water out of the reservoirs to make way for the melting snowpack. In late winter the reservoirs are used for flood control. If they let them fill up then there's no flood control.

[Racer X]

Jimmypoo wrote:
[quote=hal]
This is region is second only to NOLA for potential of catastrophic flooding...

Most of those Garden HWY homes are safe from real flooding, but many are not. Happy that I now live within a mile of the river (American, not the Sacramento), but up high on the bluffs. Most of my life I lived within one of these flood zones, but now, I'm just above it all.

Was considering moving to a little town in the delta area... drove around to get a feel for the area, then got a look at the BIG picture. There's the house I'm thinking about... there's the levee (the house is lower than the base of the levee) and there's the ONLY road leading back to civilization... Trying to imagine that tiny little road while the area is flooding was a little scary...

Not bad at all if you have a few inflatable boats (like SEALs use) as well as an inflatable ring around the house,
and explosive bolts to set the house free from its foundation. (You'd also need a thick rubber flooring)
sounds like Waterworld 2. Quick, get Costner on the phone!

[hal]

davester wrote:
They've been letting water out of the reservoirs to make way for the melting snowpack. In late winter the reservoirs are used for flood control. If they let them fill up then there's no flood control.

It's always a balancing act - they need to store enough water to get through the summer, BUT can't store TOO much or they won't be able to halt flooding.

This is the most difficult management year in a LONG time. There is a TON of water flowing, there is a HUGE snow pack AND there are more storms coming...

Pretty sure a wet April would be very, very bad....

[cbelt3]

The politics of construction in flood plains has been very clear for years. Allow people to build and get tax money. Don't build, and you get agriculture tax money, which is bupkis.

Insurance costs have gone up to accommodate 'risk', but the reality is that the risk factors that the Army Corps of Engineers rates are wrong, wrong, wrong. '100 year floods' take place actually every 20-25 years. And so forth.

I honestly don't understand it... Would you build your house on a railroad track, knowing that a train will come by and wipe out your house,, but only maybe once every 25 years or so ?