Tons of Rock Dumped on Levee to Seal Break

Emergency crews dumped tons of rock into a 100-foot-long breach of a Yuba River levee today in a desperate effort to halt the flooding that has driven approximately 21,000 people from their homes in nearby Linda and Olivehurst.

No deaths were reported from the surprise flood, which covered an estimated 28 square miles of pancake flat agricultural land in the heart of the Sacramento Valley. However, Gov. George Deukmejian was told by a National Guard official at the scene that “quite a few” serious injuries occurred.

Deukmejian, wearing a navy blue sweater and plaid shirt, flew over the stricken area in a National Guard helicopter to personally inspect the damage. Evacuation centers were hastily established for the flood refugees.

The levee break, reminiscent of the Christmas week floods of 1955 in Yuba City in which at least 17 people died when the mighty Feather River burst its banks, occurred shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday. Overnight, as the Yuba poured onto the valley floor, the breach widened from the initial 40 feet to about 100 feet. Some areas were inundated with as much as as 50 feet of water.

Emergency workers began chucking loads of rock into the gap about 9 p.m. Thursday. By late morning today, state Director of Water Resources David Kennedy expressed “a lot of hope” of repairing the levee by nightfall or Saturday noon.

About 6,000 people, many of them separated from their families and carrying only blankets and pillows, were evacuated to nearby Beale Air Force Base, where an emergency shelter was set up. Some were plucked from their rooftops by helicopters while others were taken by boat from the tops of their stranded vehicles.

“We lifted dozens of people off their car tops,” said Highway Patrolman Bob Welles.

At midday, some officials indicated that the muddy waters appeared to be receding a bit as bright sun broke through cloudy skies and weather forecasters indicated that the worst of the weeklong siege of vicious storms seemed at an end.

“One of the problems we have is how we are going to get the damned water out,” remarked Yuba County Undersheriff Dennis Moore. “We have no place to put it. If you build a levee system to keep water out, you also build a cup to hold it in.”

Linda and Olivehurst are located along Highway 65 roughly 50 miles north of Sacramento. Floodwaters inundated the western sections of both. Most evacuees said they learned of the levee break while comfortably watching television or listening to radio.

Times Sacramento Bureau Chief George Skelton and Staff Writer Leo C. Wolinsky in Yuba County and Staff Writer Carl Ingram in Sacramento contributed to this story.