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Russian River Flooding
Took a Google look at the entire river valley and the disaster area around Gurneville. Close to 150 miles of upstream flat valleys at the western base of the Coast Range with a maximum 200′ stream width with 20′ high edge of river banks in the worst of the flooded area. News says the flood crested at 46′ which was last seen 25 years ago. What actually happened to not building within the 100 year floodplain. A lot of it looks like new construction. For instance there is an Old River Road, then between that and the river is a New River Road and then between that and the river is a Riverside Road. Talk about looking for trouble.
Any body have any idea if Californicans buy Flood Insurance?
Have a little more information, 32′ is considered flood stage.
Recent Records, 1: 49.7′ 12/35/1955 2: 49.6′ 12/23/1964 3: 48.6′ 2/18/1986 4: 48.0′ 1/09/1995 5: 46.9′ 2/28/1940 6: 46+’ 2/28/2019
I would say this was a 10 year, a 100 year storm would probably be at 55′.
Paul in PA
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7 Replies
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Coastal Northern California is a mess from Crescent City to San Francsico. Water is beginning to recede now and the sun is shining.
Yes there is flood insurance in CA, Guerneville seems like it floods almost every year though not always this bad. I expect that their rates would be high….
The County of Sonoma has provided an interesting real-time GIS. I don’t know how they derive the blue shading of the river levels but it is pretty slick…
http://sonomamap.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=ebaec430f1dd40c181bf641e4c8d73c3
So far I have heard of only one death related to this storm event and it was on the Eel River near Ferndale
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I have not seen it myself but according to data from the GIS link above this bridge just South from Jenner at the river delta is about 10-15 feet underwater
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I note that the edge of the blue line is right down the middle of Old River Road.
This map has contours and probably there is a 150 mile long digital terrain model. Feed in the rainfall at various points and time and the river gauge levels and any one with a Corps of Engineers education and their computer rainfall runoff models can give the time to the minute of the peak flood level at any point. It probably began with the COE on the Mississippi 200 years ago. A lot of mapping and years of data. I first got a good handle on it when I was in Saint Louis over Fourth of July, 1993 at the peak of 60 days of upstream rainfall. The local news showed a TV crew monitoring the water height at a levee and at the time predicted the water started going over the top. I had had an advanced college level rainfall runoff training in 1980 or so but did not appreciate how well it really worked until then.
Paul in PA
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Any body have any idea if Californicans buy Flood Insurance?
Have a little more information, 32′ is considered flood stage.
Recent Records, 1: 49.7′ 12/35/1955
Recent Records, 1: 49.7′ 12/53/1955. fify ????
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Recent record: 1/ 49.7′ 12/23/1955
Paul in PA
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The Russian River floods on a regular basis. I was surprised that The Barlow, a fairly new development, flooded. It’s close to what’s called the Laguna (which flows into the river), and that also regularly floods. I would have thought they would have built The Barlow taking into account the flood patterns. According to the paper, they had some planning, but it was either not followed or didn’t work.
“A city-approved flood preparedness program crafted by Aldridge and his advisers that took six years to develop was supposed to prevent this type of extensive damage from happening if implemented correctly, Sebastopol City Manager Larry McLaughlin said.” “
“I wasn??t there when my team started following the flood plan, but all the flood logs were deployed,? Aldridge said Thursday, referring to the barriers meant to protect tenants?? stores when installed.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9335453-181/tenants-of-sebastopols-barlow-district
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