State prepares for flooding

Odin Rasco

writer

Staff

With a series of atmospheric river storms hitting the region, California’s Department of Water Resources began preparing for flooding last week.

Climatologists have raised concerns that warmer rain may fall onto the state’s snowpack, melting it away and causing significant flood conditions as a result.

“DWR’s flood operations center is activated, and we are monitoring forecasts and runoff conditions closely,” DWR Director Karla Nemeth said in a press briefing Thursday. “All efforts are being made to manage water supply and flood control during these storms.” we are making this decision proactively out of an abundance of caution for our employees and guests.”

Projections show that 11 waterways were expected to exceed flood levels, with an additional 23 anticipated to reach the flood monitoring stage, according to Jeremy Arrich, manager of DWR’s Division of Flood Management.

In anticipation of significant runoff heading into the valley, an emergency order was issued from California State Parks Wednesday night closing Lake Natoma until further notice.

Folsom Lake had already been inundated with rain Wednesday, leading to an increase in the amount of water released from its dam. The dam’s outflow on Thursday rose to 8,352 cubic feet per second, about double what the daily outflow average has been for the past month, according to DWR data. Water managers said dam releases could increase even more if needed.

Michael Anderson, climatologist for the state, indicated that there could be a total of four storms due to the atmospheric river. Despite significant rainfall and a snowpack nearing historic highs, reservoirs are struggling to reach storage highs, with many anticipated to lose water over the next week in order to avoid exacerbating flood conditions.

Heavenly officials add that resort management would be assessing conditions day-to-day and expect recovery from the storm to “take a bit of time.”

Conditions reported from Heavenly included rain up to 8,500 feet and ridgeline winds that hit 139 mph.

Home and business owners scrambled Thursday to remove as much snow from roofs as possible before the multi-day atmospheric river arrived.

With roofs collapsing across the county due to heavy snow load, South Lake Tahoe saw another