Many densely populated US regions face the threat of flooding as disastrous as after Hurricane Katrina, due to urban spread into river floodplains, scientists warned Saturday. An earthquake or even a moderate flood could destroy the levee system protecting towns and cities along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in northern California, said Jeffrey Mount of the University of California.

“The probability of a catastrophic levee failure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the next 50 years is two in three,” Mount said on the sidelines of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference.

“In spite of 70 years of federal flood control efforts and nearly 40 years of federal flood insurance, the costs of flooding continue to rise and there is no federal policy to provide direction for future actions,” said Gerald Galloway, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland.

Galloway said that development had to be restricted in risk zones and water defences had to be strengthened as the authorities in the Netherlands have done since disastrous flooding there.

“If we knew about Katrina 200 years ago, would we have done the same thing again in New Orleans?” Mount asked. “Well, in California we are reinventing our own Katrina as we speak.”

Is there anybody out there — listening?



  1. Bill says:

    Really? DOAH!!!!

  2. stew says:

    Please do not depend on the goverment! Your life depends on it.

  3. Scott says:

    If people would stop insisting on living in McMansions on huge lots, we wouldn’t have to use prime ag land, which is also flood plain, to build houses.

    The vulnerable areas in the Central Valley are largely newer developments, and they know–or should know–what they’ve got coming.

  4. Jeremy Robbins says:

    Remember when your history teacher told you
    “history forgotten is history repeated”

    it’s as if people only look ahead, with out looking at what has been.

  5. Mr. Fusion says:

    Jeremy

    That is because these things happen to other people, not them. They are immune to weather, earthquakes, pestilence, and economic upheaval. That is why they support Bush, he doesn’t think any of that is going to happen either.

  6. Babaganoosh says:

    As a Sacramentan I’ve been worrying a bit about this ever since Katrina. I live near the American River though (most of the threat is from the Sacramento River), so my home would likely be fine unless one of the upstream dams broke, but that’s another matter.

    Recently, I had the opportunity to explore along one of these levees when the river was running high. It was a little appalling to be driving on top of the levee, look at the river level, and then look at the ground level which was at least 5 ft lower in many places. If this particular stretch of levee were to break, there’d be nothing at all to stop the water for several miles the ground is so flat. What’s worse, that area (Natomas) is actually a basin.

  7. jay lueckel says:

    Wired magazine had a wonderful graphic on “America’s Next Top Disasters” following Katrina/Rita in its November issue – they listed the levee failure in the Sacramento Delta as the most likely disaster (66% in the next 50 years and this potentially affects 22 million people). This was followed by flooding in the upper Mississippi (occurs every 15-20 years) – Louisiana isn’t the only place below river level. Soon after Wired story, Governor Arnold winged his way to Washington to seek extra funding to shore up the levees. And a recent article in the New York Times or Washington Post discussed how building up the levees just brings more residential & commercial development in what may have been marshlands or agricultural lands.

  8. Me says:

    Don’t blame it on big houses or big lots. Blame it on where they’re being placed. A big house on a big lot with a big SUV and a big driveway connecting to a big road is the goal. If you can’t strive for that what’s the point in not destroying the Earth, since there would be nothing to live for.

    Who the hell would ever want to live in some collectivist nightmare where we’re all on top of each other, walking like lemmings to mass transit (vomit).

    Ideally, if you can see your nearest neighbor’s house, you’re too close. 10 acre lots should be the standard for tightly packed residential areas in the modern 21st century. A square mile per house would be better. We’re not supposed to be savages huddling together in squalor anymore.


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