Focus on Levees Raises Hopes

The sun shone bright here Saturday. Short-sleeve weather, not a rain puddle in sight. Hot or not, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had just declared a state of emergency for neighborhoods like Amy Labson’s, embraced by a bend of the Sacramento River.

She couldn’t have been happier.

Labson and lots of other homeowners who have long worried about the flood risk along the Central Valley’s chancy river levees greeted it as good news, if long overdue.

Just a few days earlier, Schwarzenegger and a who’s who of California politicians had concluded a helicopter tour of the central state’s timeworn levees by landing in a park near Labson’s home.

While her toddler son played nearby, Labson listened to the speeches, then watched the dignitaries depart. She figured that was the end of it. But then Schwarzenegger punctuated his workweek by combining a flair for the dramatic with a desire to avoid a flooding disaster.

The governor’s emergency declaration for Sacramento Delta levees, announced on the eve of the state Republican Party’s annual convention, is intended to speed as much as $100 million toward riverfront repairs in places like Labson’s neighborhood, which could be swamped by 15 feet of floodwater if luck doesn’t hold.

Schwarzenegger’s emergency funding is part of up to $8 billion state officials predict could ultimately prove necessary to buttress the Central Valley against a Katrina-like disaster.

“Welcome to California,” said Labson, who looks out her front window at a two-story wall of earth and rock that holds back the river. “Our governor is in a leather jacket in the sunshine flying around in a Blackhawk helicopter. He’s into dramatics. He’s ‘the Terminator.’ I don’t agree with him on lots of things, but I hope this helps.”

Such hopes were echoed up and down the central state’s intricate, 6,000-mile system of river and delta levees.

Local governments and private homeowners have been fretting about the decline of the levees for decades. Before Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, they had a hard time getting much attention.

No more.

New Orleans flooded despite having nearly triple the protection of the city of Sacramento, now considered the nation’s worst metropolitan flood risk.

Waterfront cities like St. Louis and Tacoma, Wash., have protection against what experts call a 500-year flood -- the sort of high-rising waters that have a 1 in 500 chance of occurring each year. New Orleans had better than 200-year flood protection. Some riverfront stretches in Sacramento have only 85-year protection, although efforts are underway to strengthen them.

A few areas, like the Pocket neighborhood where Labson lives south of downtown, are particularly troubled. Of two dozen critical erosion spots along the region’s levees, several are in the Pocket.

“I didn’t vote for Arnold -- I’m a Democrat. But I think he’s trying,” said Richard Spire, a 67-year-old retired truck driver. “I hope they can at least patch up some of these spots.”

In nearly two decades, Spire has seen the neighborhood explode with growth. To the north of Sacramento, the fast-growing Natomas region is also one of the most worrisome spots in the state.

If a 200-year flood burst through the Sacramento River levee, waters would average 11 feet deep, engulf 11,000 homes and businesses and cause billions of dollars in damage, state Department of Water Resources officials estimate.

Natomas resident Tim Pearsall, 34, washed his truck Saturday and employed one of the governor’s favorite adjectives to describe his opinion of the emergency declaration.

“Fantastic!” Pearsall said between swipes with a scrub brush. “I think somebody needed to step up and say this is a risk and be preemptive.”

But he also voiced a note of pessimism about the political process. If flooding comes, he said, Schwarzenegger and state officials have inoculated themselves with the perfect defense.

“They can say they did what they could,” said Pearsall, who bought his 1,500-square-foot house for half what he would have paid in the San Francisco Bay Area. “And I don’t know if I could disagree with that.”

The flood risk is even greater in the sprawling Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where half-century-old levees in some cases stand as the sole line of defense for a few fast-growing communities.

If an earthquake or other calamity causes the levees to fail, authorities warn, a surge of seawater could rush inland, shutting down pumps and aqueducts that provide much of Southern California’s fresh water.

In bustling Lathrop, just south of Stockton, bulldozers and earthmovers are carving the turf in a development surge expected to quintuple the population in the next few decades.

But the emergency announcement didn’t put a damper on weekend home shopping. It seemed to be business as usual in Mossdale Landing, one of three major developments expected to add 18,000 homes to Lathrop.

“Grand Opening” banners were everywhere. Prospective buyers were checking out model homes. Real estate agents were closing deals.

“I don’t think the announcement will freak people,” said sales agent Lewie Hodge. “There will be more security because levee safety is under the microscope.”

Before the homes were built, the nearby levee sprang leaks during the heavy rains of 1997, flooding the area. City officials say repairs have bolstered the levee, but state officials remain concerned about the safety of the burgeoning city.

Ernie and Connie Aguila, who recently bought a home in Mossdale Landing, welcomed Schwarzenegger’s declaration of an emergency, hoping that it would lead to swift repairs and boost their margin of safety.

The couple’s concerns about flooding were outweighed by affordability in a newly planned community. To them, it was a bet worth taking.

“We figured the odds are going to be 50 to 100 years before the next flood,” Connie Aguilar said.

Eloy Pedres didn’t hear about Schwarzenegger’s emergency declaration -- he was too busy moving in at Mossdale Landing on Saturday. A big red ribbon wrapped the front door of the four-bedroom house he purchased for more than $600,000. He is optimistic.

The subdivision’s buffed up network of sewer and drainage pipes should siphon off rising water, he said. “We hope it will not get flooded again.”

Pedres and other residents received a disclosure statement advising them of potential levee failure and noting that the government recommends flood insurance.

But the insurance, which typically costs about $300 a year, isn’t required, and most residents Saturday said they paid little heed to the warning.

They also doubted that the governor’s announcement would have any effect on their property values. Housing demand is robust, especially in communities like Lathrop, near the San Joaquin River and within commuting distance of the Bay Area.

Emmett Cuison, a retired electrician who moved to the subdivision in January, said he had been worried about the levees even before the governor’s announcement. He is resigned to the fact that the repairs could take a very long time.

“I don’t know how you can take the river out of the delta,” he said. “It’s been here forever.”