The flood of 95

Any of you have pictures of the flood of 95? The most incredible vision I have are of the thousands of blue 55 gallon drums floating around Watsonville., and of course the river breaking its bank in Salinas. You couldn't drive throught Castroville as it was made an island for around A week.


http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20131210/NEWS01/312100021/Farmers-Disastrous-Salinas-River-flood-may-loom

Wish I had my kayaks back then.

I remember that flood like it was yesterday.  My aunt/uncle line on San Juan Rd. only a few hundred yards from the Pajaro River.  The water rose to within only a couple feet of their house.  The flood couldn't finish off what the eatrhquake of '89 started.

They still find blue barrels at th bottom of the Monterey Canyon with the rover ever once in a while.

I was in Santa Barbara that winter, working at a dive shop. We had to sandbag the front door often that winter.
We had a monthly dive charter and the prevailing conditions were so bad that winter that between November and April only one charter trip made it out (yeah I was on it! )

Those pics are pretty crazy Andy!

Interesting you brought this up Andy.  I was just talking yesterday with a buddy about the floods of 1997 in the Sierra down to the Valley.  That was caused by a rain on snow event with a warm storm with rain up to 11,000 ft.  After the cold front and low snow this week we are set-up for it again if we get a warm pineapple-express storm from the Pacific. I was out on the Clavey River on the Stanislaus NF during some of the flood run-off - just amazing, above the water noise you could hear huge boulders banging off the bottom as they were pushed down stream - the river power was unbelievable.

I remember seeing guys cruising thru the strawberry fields on jet ski's.  Kayak would have been much more effective.

I was still in school at Cal Poly in SLO.   I was working at Sycamore Mineral Springs (AKA soak and poke).   We got trapped there overnight as the flooding took out the road that allowed access.  It was a fun experience but the damage there was pretty bad.   

In the link Andy posted,  the threat of flooding is imminent and is on all grower's minds.   Estimates are that a rainfall event of 1/2 the magnitude could cause the same level of damage.  What will happen if a similar event or larger event were to occur?

The economic and environmental consequences of no river maintenance is severe.  All of the cities sewer treatment plants are on the river.  How would they withstand the flooding?  The loss of jobs related to crop loss would be bad too.  The salad plants that produce the majority of our bagged salads would not be able to discharge water to the river (the waste water is treated and highly regulated already).   Scary times.  I'm all about balance,  how can we balance the environment and the economic issues?

Oh Man! The rainy season does not sit well with me where I am in Guerneville. The '95 flood topped out at 48 feet and the '86 flood at 49 feet. The river usually sits around 5-6 feet until winter. Flood level is 30 or 31 feet. I usually dont worry unless the rain comes all at once  and coincides with a high tide at Jenner. Sometimes Fife creek does a little ditty just to mess with us, but we have been cool lately.  That being said, we are due for a nasty one, and I am leery about this year. Here's what it can look like.......

The big building in the right center is Safeway. I live to the North just out of view.

Just got this in an email


SENATOR CANELLA TO ANNOUNCE NEW LEGISLATION TO EASE CLEARING OF SALINAS RIVER
 
State Senator Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres) will be joined by a bipartisan group of elected officials and farmers to announce working with local leaders to find a solution to ease the clearing of the Salinas River. The location of the announcement is an area of the river that could potentially experience flood conditions.
 
WHO:             State Senator Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres)
                        Assembly Member Luis Alejo (D-Salinas)
                        Supervisor Simon Salinas
                        Farmers
WHAT:           Announcement from bipartisan group of local leaders to find solutions                           to ease the clearing of the Salinas River
WHEN:           Friday, December 13 @ 9:30 a.m.
WHERE:        Hilltown Road, behind Scheid Vineyards, Salinas

DIRECTIONS: From Highway 68 West, exit River Road/Reservation Road, turn right at traffic signal onto Reservation Road, first right on Hilltown Road. Signs to the event location will be posted.

I drove all over Sacramento taking all kinds of photos.
I'll see if I can dig them up and scan a few.

I was still in school at Cal Poly in SLO.   I was working at Sycamore Mineral Springs (AKA soak and poke).

  LOLOLOL Never heard it called that LOLOL I took my wife there before we were married, been trying to ditch the kids on someone to go back LOLOL Oh geeze I'm crying about that, going to love telling her that 

Sorry, threadjack over, flooding bad, I was out of state, can't believe that was almost 20 years ago!!

Now that I think about it the pics I took were of the '86 flood.
I'll post some up this weekend.