California Braces for More Flooding When Record Snowpack Melts
By Jim Carlton | Photographs by Jennifer Emerling for The Wall Street Journal April 15, 2023 8:00 am ET ALLENSWORTH, Calif.—Ray Strong looked up at the Sierra Nevada range in its magnificent mantle of snow—and frowned. “Once that water starts flowing, you can’t stop it,” said Mr. Strong, 66 years, as he mowed his lawn in early April in the flatlands of California’s Central Valley. California’s swing from record drought to record precipitation already has resulted in costly destruction across the state. Some of the hardest hit areas are in the southern Central Valley, where flooding from storms earlier this year has left an estimated $2 billion in damages to farms and support indus
By
Jim Carlton | Photographs by Jennifer Emerling for The Wall Street Journal
ALLENSWORTH, Calif.—Ray Strong looked up at the Sierra Nevada range in its magnificent mantle of snow—and frowned.
“Once that water starts flowing, you can’t stop it,” said Mr. Strong, 66 years, as he mowed his lawn in early April in the flatlands of California’s Central Valley.
California’s swing from record drought to record precipitation already has resulted in costly destruction across the state. Some of the hardest hit areas are in the southern Central Valley, where flooding from storms earlier this year has left an estimated $2 billion in damages to farms and support industries in Kings County and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in neighboring Tulare County, according to local government estimates.
Now the state faces the threat of new flooding from the massive snowpack atop the Sierra that hangs over the 450-mile valley, which is home to some of the most valuable cropland in America. With temperatures on the rise, officials of the state Department of Water Resources said their forecasts show river levels running as much as four times higher than normal through July.
“If we get some hot days that come too quickly, that snowmelt is going to come rushing down like a diesel train,” said Richard Valle, chairman of the Kings County board of supervisors. “We have a very scary situation on our hands.”
Crews moved large sandbags into position earlier this week to strengthen levees in Tulare County, Calif.
Government hydrologists say the rich farmbelt of the southern Central Valley is an area of concern because the mountains above have some of the most snow in the state, with 10 feet or more in some places, three times the historical average. State, federal and local officials are busy raising roads and levees, repairing damaged canals and limiting reservoir water levels to leave room for the melted snow. Water that can’t be held there is being channeled into farm fields, where state officials hope it can replenish underground storage basins.
“There is a coordinated group looking at the situation and looking at as many options as possible to mitigate the hazard,” said State Climatologist Michael Anderson.
The Central Valley’s agriculture industry, which has been hammered by drought over much of the past decade, is particularly vulnerable to flooding. In Tulare County, Supervisor Pete Vander Poel III said almond yields alone are expected to be down as much as 59% because of water damage.
Local officials say greater damage could result if the snowmelt can’t be corralled. One of the biggest threats, they say, is to the Kings County city of Corcoran, where the 22,000 residents, including 8,000 inmates in two state prisons, are protected by a 14.5 mile-long levee that was built about 40 years ago.
Water from previous storms has already amassed along the levee, which has a maximum height of 20 feet. City officials and a local flood-control district have started a $17 million emergency project to raise it an additional 4 feet.
If the levee is overwhelmed and Corcoran is flooded, the losses could total $6 billion, said City Manager Greg Gatzka. He said state and federal agencies have been too slow to help fund projects such as the levee project.
“With climate change, we need to mobilize resources faster,” Mr. Gatzka said. “We can no longer afford to be a day late and a dollar short. We have to be a day early and a dollar funded to be ready for these events.”
In Tulare County, officials say levees have been weakened by years of drought that allowed squirrels and other animals to burrow holes. Storms flooded thousands of acres of farmland in the county in March, leaving communities including historically Black Allensworth partially cut off for weeks.
Mr. Strong said the town of about 500 would have been inundated had neighbors not hopped on their tractors and plowed holes in berms at one end of town to allow the floodwaters to rush past.
“What puzzles us is [government officials] know the water is going to come, but they come after the damage is done,” said Mr. Strong, a former wide receiver for the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons.
State officials say they are preparing for snowmelt and have already dropped 2,500 bags of sand and rock into levee breaches and installed portable flood barriers. Jeremy Arrich, who oversees flood management for the state water agency, said it doesn’t have jurisdiction over many levees that are operated privately or by other agencies.
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Bitta Toor said his family’s farm in Tulare County suffered about $20 million in losses after March storms flooded a 2,400-acre orchard, killing many of the pistachio trees.
Workers recently have been trying to save other trees by digging them out of pools of water and mud. “If the snow melts and the levees don’t stop it,” he said, “the water is going to come down here again.”
Write to Jim Carlton at [email protected]
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