California Blog #41: Flood Alert!

 The following blog is based on actual events that happened in January 2023, and it's for everyone whose seen the California flooding in Santa Cruz County.

As you may have heard, the 2022–2023 California floods affected parts of Southern California, the California Central Coast, Northern California and Nevada as the result of multiple atmospheric rivers in California, resulting in extended periods of heavy rainfall. The flooding began after record levels of rainfall were recorded on December 31, 2022. It affected everyone in the state of California when this happened. So before I come to visit California or plan to move back here again, we'll have to wait for a while or more until parts of the California counties are fixed and the floodwaters are drained. Before the rains started, California had been in an extreme drought. But since the flood started before 2023 arrived, we were shocked to see the Capitola Wharf was damages from the storm.  Now when was the last flood you asked?

It all started a long time ago in that historical year.

The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in Oregon in November 1861 and continued into January 1862. This was followed by a record amount of rain from January 9–12, and contributed to a flood that extended from the Columbia River southward in western Oregon, and through California to San Diego, and extended as far inland as Idaho in the Washington Territory, Nevada and Utah in the Utah Territory, and Arizona in the western New Mexico Territory. The event dumped an equivalent of 10 feet of water in California, in the form of rain and snow, over a period of 43 days. Immense snowfalls in the mountains of far western North America caused more flooding in Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, as well as in Baja California and Sonora, Mexico the following spring and summer, as the snow melted.

The event was capped by a warm intense storm that melted the high snow load. The resulting snow-melt flooded valleys, inundated or swept away towns, mills, dams, flumes, houses, fences, and domestic animals, and ruined fields. It has been described as the worst disaster ever to strike California. The storms caused approximately $100 million (1861 USD) in damage, approximately equal to $3.117 billion (2021 USD). The governor, state legislature, and state employees were not paid for a year and a half. At least 4,000 people were estimated to have been killed in the floods in California, which was roughly 1% of the state population at the time.

Now on that month of January 2023, the storm slammed the Capitola Wharf and were split into two. When I saw the pictures of the Wharf being torn down that day on Facebook, I was shocked. Now it's gonna take a lot of time to get the Wharf repaired before the time comes.

Here's some more on you need to know about the California flood.

The weather pattern that caused this flood was not from an El Niño-type event, and from the existing Army and private weather records, it has been determined that the polar jet stream was to the north, as the Pacific Northwest experienced a mild rainy pattern for the first half of December 1861. In 2012, hydrologists and meteorologists concluded that the precipitation was likely caused by a series of atmospheric rivers that hit the Western United States along the entire West Coast, from Oregon to Southern California. Long time ago, California was hit by a combination of incessant rain, snow, and then unseasonally high temperatures. In Northern California, it snowed heavily during the later part of November and the first few days of December, when the temperature rose unusually high, until it began to rain. In San Francisco, there were 35 inches of precipitation in December 1861-January 1862, and almost 50 for the season. There were four distinct rainy periods: The first occurred on December 9, 1861, the second on December 23–28, the third on January 9–12, and the fourth on January 15–17. Native Americans knew that the Sacramento Valley could become an inland sea when the rains came. Their storytellers described water filling the valley from the Coast Range to the Sierra.

Spoiler Alert: Over 40 state parks in California were fully closed, and one national park was also closed, Redwood National Park.

Northern California

Fort Ter-Waw, located in Klamath Glen, California, was destroyed by the flood in December 1861 and abandoned on June 10, 1862. Bridges were washed away in Trinity and Shasta counties. At Red Dog in Nevada County, William Begole reported that from December 23 to January 22 it rained a total of 25.5 inches, and on January 10 and 11 alone, it rained over 11 inches.

At Weaverville, John Carr was a witness to the sudden melt of snow by the heavy rain and onset of the flood in December 1861 on the Trinity River:

From November until the latter part of March there was a succession of storms and floods... The ground was covered with snow 1 foot deep, and on the mountains much deeper... The water in the river ... seemed like some mighty uncontrollable monster of destruction broken away from its bonds, rushing uncontrollably on, and everywhere carrying ruin and destruction in its course. When rising, the river seemed highest in the middle... From the head settlement to the mouth of the Trinity River, for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, everything was swept to destruction. Not a bridge was left, or a mining-wheel or a sluce-box. Parts of ranches and miners cabins met the same fate. The labor of hundreds of men, and their savings of years, invested in bridges, mines and ranches, were all swept away. In forty-eight hours the valley of the Trinity was left desolate. The county never recovered from that disastrous flood. Many of the mining-wheels and bridges were never rebuilt.

Two years later William H. Brewer saw near Crescent City, the debris of the flood:

The floods of two years ago brought down an immense amount of driftwood from all the rivers along the coast, and it was cast up along this part of the coast in quantities that stagger belief. It looked to me as if I saw enough in ten miles along the shore to make a million cords of wood.... One I measured was 210 feet long and 3 1/2 feet at the little end, without the bark.

Sacramento Valley

In Central Valley, The entire Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys were inundated. An area about 300 miles (480 km) long, averaging 20 miles (32 km) in width, and covering 5,000 to 6,000 square miles (13,000 to 16,000 km²) was under water. The water flooding the Central Valley reached depths up to 30 feet (9.1 m), completely submerging telegraph poles that had just been installed between San Francisco and New York. Transportation, mail, and communications across the state were disrupted for a month.^[24]Water covered portions of the valley from December 1861, through the spring, and into the summer of 1862.

A levee along the Cosumnes River broke, resulting in SR 99 being flooded. Evacuations were ordered in Wilton. Several people were trapped in their cars and had to be rescued. Three people were killed from flooding on the roads. The levee failures were traced to a private property.

Wind gusts of over 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) knocked down trees and caused widespread power outages that affected over 500,000 SMUD customers. Two people were killed when trees fell on them due to the high winds. A total of five people died from the storms in Sacramento County, making it the hardest-hit county in the state. The Sacramento Zoo closed on January 10 due to storm damage.

Southern California

Evacuations were issued for Ventura County and Santa Barbara counties, including Montecito (which had experienced the deadly 2018 mudflows). Multiple highways, including I-5, SR 126, and US 101, were closed, and a sinkhole that swallowed two cars opened up near Chatsworth. The SoFi Stadium, which hosted the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship, experienced rain.

Central California

Widespread flooding was experienced within the Central Coast. A flash flood outside of Paso Robles swept away a five-year-old boy who was on his way to school. He and his mother had exited their vehicle and rescuers were only able to reach his mother. After a seven-hour search, only one of his shoes was found. The main coastal rail line that connects the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles was closed down when a bridge at Honda Point within Vandenberg Space Force Base had to undergo several weeks of repairs due to the flooding that had eroded the earth that supports the bridge’s footings. The Santa Barbara Municipal Airport was closed due to flooding. The Salinas River filled above flood levels, resulting in road closures of bridges in Paso Robles and causing a levee to break near Salinas. In Merced, evacuations were ordered throughout the area because of an overflow at the nearby Bear Creek. In Bishop, the city exceeded their annual precipitation average by January 11 due to the floods.

We're not finished just yet. If you like to know more about them, listen to this.

Other states included Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.

Nevada

Flood watches were issued for Northern Nevada. In parts of the Sierra Nevada, 7.5 in (19 cm) of snow fell in just one hour. Reno, Nevada recorded their third wettest day on record.

Arizona

Flooding from Oak Creek impacted the community of Cornville in Yavapai County, Arizona, on January 1 due to heavy rain hitting the area. Water from the creek rose to more than 8 ft (2.4 m), prompting flood warnings to be issued for the area.

Utah

The city of Draper, Utah, experienced flooding on the night of January 10 when heavy rains moved through the city. More than 30 homes were inundated as several inches of rain fell.

So now you know why California was flooded this year. If you've read this blog, then you might be pretty lucky right now. The best part of it is that the droughts will be likely eased and filled up with water once again. That might also mean that the reservoirs won't be dry. I think...

But right now California's drought is not over, but a cavalcade of atmospheric river storms over the past three weeks has brought substantial relief to the state's water crisis in at least the short term, with big recent boosts to snowpack and reservoir levels.

Will rain ease the drought? Will water levels rise up again? And will floods drain out and get all cleaned up? The answer will later on be 'yes'. We hope so.

Thank you for checking out my special blog on this year's California flood story.

If you'd like to get involved and help prevent future floods from happening in California, let me know.

Stay safe and let's hope that California will be better soon.