A Flooded Farm Town Wrings Itself Out

Just before Caroline Kleinert’s husband died three years ago, he told her she would be well taken care of after he was gone because she had a “nice house that’s all paid for.”

What George Kleinert couldn’t foresee was a February, 1986, levee break that flooded this small Yuba County town, leaving the family home, and dozens of others, in 10 feet of water for two weeks.

Today Caroline Kleinert, 75, lives in a motor home belonging to her son while she, with the help of friends and relatives, works to restore her quaint, two-bedroom home on Jay Street.

“It just makes me sick,” Kleinert said as she walked through what once was her kitchen, now strewn with pieces of Sheetrock and rubble from reconstruction.

Kleinert was one of about 20,000 people evacuated at dinner time Feb. 20, as Linda and nearby Olivehurst found themselves in the path of a raging river unleashed by the levee break. The flood came in the wake of a torrential storm that caused mud slides and flooding throughout Northern California. In some ways, however, she was among the lucky ones. One person died in the flood and hundreds of others lost everything. Most residents of Linda rented their homes and many escaped with little more than what they carried out in the tense minutes before the flood crashed into the streets.

When it was over, many simply left town. The Peach Tree Mall, a shopping center that was one of the largest employers in the area, was damaged badly and is not expected to reopen until late this year.

Reminders of Flood

Five months after the flood, there are reminders of it everywhere--abandoned houses, buildings midway through rehabilitation, and orange crosses painted on the roofs of some houses. The crosses were used by rescuers to identify evacuated homes as they transported stranded families by boat to local Red Cross shelters.

Residents, however, also say the disaster has drawn the remaining residents of the farming community together as never before. And with the river receded, an atmosphere of country-town serenity, interrupted mainly by the whir of a chain saw or pounding of a hammer, prevails.

“This is rural America,” said Kelly Purdom, director of the Yuba County Office of Emergency Services in Marysville, just north of Linda. “If you want to live here you have to tame the river in the summer and let it tame you in the winter.”

Purdom said Yuba County, the county with the lowest median income in the state, has found it tough to rebound from the disaster. Average personal income in Yuba County was $9,514 in 1984, the most recent figures available.

The county sustained $1.82 million in damage from the storms, Purdom said.

The Red Cross has spent nearly $3.4 million in the county and $6.8 million in Northern California on disaster relief, according to Donna Zwald, Red Cross director in Yuba City. The relief ranges from emergency shelter to rescue efforts to new clothes.

Linda resident Jo Ann Findley was impressed that she was able to get a washer and dryer from the Red Cross. Others said they were grateful for the constant supply of food, even though it wasn’t always the best.

Zwald said second-graders at Cedar Lane Elementary School wrote about how they perceived the Red Cross and all of them drew pictures of the feeding unit.

“One wrote that he loved the doughnuts, but the juice ‘stunk,’ ” Zwald said.

Of the 2,500 families the Red Cross aided in Linda and Olivehurst, only 854 are homeowners, Zwald said. After the flood, many renters chose to leave town.

The family renting from Robert Armstrong, who lives north of Linda in Biggs, just walked away afterwards, leaving Armstrong and his wife, Arvella, to strip the house to the bare structure.

“I don’t blame them,” Arvella Armstrong said.

One of the Armstrongs’ neighbors owed $66,000 on his house. “He couldn’t afford to put $20,000 into it (to rebuild), so he just walked away,” Arvella Armstrong said.

Loans and Grants Helped

Some who stayed were able to obtain grants or loans from state and federal agencies.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has helped 1,432 residents of Yuba County with $1.5 million in grants for emergency home repairs and temporary shelter, said agency spokesman Verne Paule. The checks were sent “sometime back,” he said.

Zwald said the checks are starting to come in, but that some residents were upset with the amounts they received and at the red tape they had to go through to get it.

“It doesn’t happen one, two, three,” Paule replied, adding that grants are based on damage to the home, not family income.

The flood also cost many Linda residents their jobs, another factor that led some to leave town.

Kim King had worked at the local Peach Tree Mall, which also sat in 10 feet of water for two weeks. She says she was lucky to find a job at the Office of Emergency Services.

The flood made residents realize the importance of the Peach Tree Mall to the community, King said.

Closed for Half a Year

The mall, which housed a J. C. Penney’s and a K Mart as well as other stores, will not reopen for another six to eight months, emergency services director Purdom said, forcing 300 to 400 people out of their jobs. He said mall owners had flood insurance, unlike most homeowners.

Jack and Arlene Newell--who own a second home next door to Jack’s sister, Caroline Kleinert--didn’t renew their flood insurance in mid-February, just days before the flood. There hadn’t been a flood in 30 years and the Newells figured they didn’t need insurance any more, Arlene said.

“I’d venture to say 99% of the people are like we were, thinking, ‘We don’t need flood insurance,’ ” she said.

Now the Newells are living in their motor home, working on their house and on Kleinert’s. The Newells, who live in Alaska most of the year, said the repair work can be discouraging, especially when temperatures top 100, as they often do in the summer.

But Kleinert said a sense of community spirit has risen above the disaster.

“The whole area has been very, very close,” Kleinert said. “The ones who didn’t talk before--we all visit back and forth now. . . . Everyone’s in good spirits. After all, everyone’s in the same boat.”

“No,” Jack Newell said to his sister with a chuckle, “we’ve had enough boats.”