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"content": "\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> saw its highest summer tides on record over the weekend, and more flooding and king tides are expected in low-lying coastal and bayshore areas through Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water levels peaked at 1.97 feet above normal Sunday — breaking the Bay Area’s summer record, set the previous day. Tides are predicted to peak again overnight Monday at 2 feet above normal in Monterey County and 1.8 feet in San Francisco, according to the weather service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The region should see slightly lower peaks just after midnight Wednesday and Thursday, as the astronomical tide recedes late this week. The weather service also warned of hazardous beach conditions, including sneaker waves and strong rip currents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The weekend’s record-breaking tides caused some coastal flooding in Larkspur along Lucky Drive and Redwood Highway, as well as throughout Corte Madera’s Golden Hind Passage neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water also flooded the sidewalk and spilled into the street in San Francisco near Pier 14 on the Embarcadero, disrupting pedestrian and cyclist traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologist Rachel Kennedy said the weather service is predicting some isolated road and parking lot closures, especially along the Marin County shoreline and coastal Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie and her son, Rowan, stand outside their home beside road closure signs staged for potential flooding along Golden Hind Passage in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. Residents in low-lying neighborhoods were advised to prepare for king tide flooding through June 16. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you’re driving in those areas, [make] sure that you have an alternate route ready to go in the event that your normal path is encountering some coastal flooding, or you’re going to park in a parking lot that’s now got some flooding going on in it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime Kelly, 48, who’s lived in the Golden Hind Passage neighborhood in Marin County for more than 20 years, said this weekend was the first time her home has flooded in the summer, without significant rainfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely gotten worse since we first moved in 2002,” she told KQED. “It would happen maybe once every few years, and it might come up over the sidewalk or something, but the last couple years, it’s come up higher and higher.”[aside postID=news_12069118 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3.jpg']During January’s record-setting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068644/marin-county-looked-like-a-lagoon-after-king-tides-heavy-rain\">king tides\u003c/a>, which peaked at 2.5 feet above normal after multiple particularly wet weeks, she said water seeped into her and her husband’s garage for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents are increasingly taking protective measures into their own hands. On Monday, nearby construction crews were busy raising the foundation of one of Kelly’s neighbor’s homes, and Kelly said she and her husband recently opted to install a new fence around their garden as a way to protect it from flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tides are driven by the phases of the moon, according to Kennedy, usually peaking around the new moon, which happened Sunday. Water levels have historically risen the highest in the winter months, but meteorologists said at the time that extreme tides could become more common as the climate changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area’s water levels have risen nearly 2 millimeters per year on average over the past three decades, and the ocean and the bay could rise by about a foot by 2050 — and more than 6 feet by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighbors who live at slightly lower elevations, Kelly said, can sometimes be up to their knees in seawater in their garages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Breidenbaugh, who was visiting his daughter’s home in Golden Hind, said that her garage had upwards of seven inches of water in it during Sunday night’s peak tide. The house effectively became an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087668\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastic sheeting and sandbags are placed outside a home along Golden Hind Passage, as residents prepare for potential king tide flooding, in Corte Madera, on June 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This lot is a bit below high sea level, unfortunately,” he told KQED. “They’ve lost some stuff because they weren’t as diligent as they should be, but they’re learning fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breidenbaugh was drying out the garage with a fan Monday and said the family was going to line it with some polyethylene plastic sheeting before the tides are expected to rise again overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family has learned to keep everything in the garage, from a baby stroller to the washer and dryer, off the floor. Seawater remained pooled along the curb of his daughter’s house late into the morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’ll flood again tonight, so we’ll be doing this again tomorrow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087664\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A home along Golden Hind Passage is raised above its foundation in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. Some homeowners are elevating structures as part of long-term efforts to adapt to recurring tidal flooding. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Longer term, he said the family was planning to install a sump — a basin dug in a basement that drains water — in the garage, and considering building up perimeter walls around the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re helping them figure this property out and get it armored against the water,” he said. “We’ll figure it out. It might take a few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corte Madera Mayor Rosa Thomas said her office is also looking at solutions to protect the entire town. In January, sea water reached freeways, and spilled over levees, bike trails and into homes and businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said they’re hoping to build berms, or raised mounts of earth and soil material that slope, to keep water out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosa Thomas, mayor of Corte Madera, poses for a portrait in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Corte Madera has a system of flood gates and pumps, Thomas said, but “when the tides are as high as they were back in January, there’s nowhere for the water to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corte Madera does have a FEMA-funded berm project in the pipeline, but Thomas said it’s been stalled under the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, she said, they’re looking at building temporary, inflatable berms ahead of next winter, when California is expecting stormier, wetter weather thanks to what could be a strong El Niño season. The arrival of the weather pattern likely means more intense atmospheric rivers, major snow events in the Sierra Nevada, and larger waves, coastal flooding, and higher sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The next big tidal flooding that we’re expecting is going to probably be around January [or] December of this year, so we were looking at how we can best be ready for that,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The weekend’s record-breaking tides caused some coastal flooding in Larkspur along Lucky Drive and Redwood Highway, as well as throughout Corte Madera’s Golden Hind Passage neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water also flooded the sidewalk and spilled into the street in San Francisco near Pier 14 on the Embarcadero, disrupting pedestrian and cyclist traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologist Rachel Kennedy said the weather service is predicting some isolated road and parking lot closures, especially along the Marin County shoreline and coastal Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_002-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie and her son, Rowan, stand outside their home beside road closure signs staged for potential flooding along Golden Hind Passage in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. Residents in low-lying neighborhoods were advised to prepare for king tide flooding through June 16. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you’re driving in those areas, [make] sure that you have an alternate route ready to go in the event that your normal path is encountering some coastal flooding, or you’re going to park in a parking lot that’s now got some flooding going on in it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaime Kelly, 48, who’s lived in the Golden Hind Passage neighborhood in Marin County for more than 20 years, said this weekend was the first time her home has flooded in the summer, without significant rainfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely gotten worse since we first moved in 2002,” she told KQED. “It would happen maybe once every few years, and it might come up over the sidewalk or something, but the last couple years, it’s come up higher and higher.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During January’s record-setting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068644/marin-county-looked-like-a-lagoon-after-king-tides-heavy-rain\">king tides\u003c/a>, which peaked at 2.5 feet above normal after multiple particularly wet weeks, she said water seeped into her and her husband’s garage for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents are increasingly taking protective measures into their own hands. On Monday, nearby construction crews were busy raising the foundation of one of Kelly’s neighbor’s homes, and Kelly said she and her husband recently opted to install a new fence around their garden as a way to protect it from flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tides are driven by the phases of the moon, according to Kennedy, usually peaking around the new moon, which happened Sunday. Water levels have historically risen the highest in the winter months, but meteorologists said at the time that extreme tides could become more common as the climate changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area’s water levels have risen nearly 2 millimeters per year on average over the past three decades, and the ocean and the bay could rise by about a foot by 2050 — and more than 6 feet by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighbors who live at slightly lower elevations, Kelly said, can sometimes be up to their knees in seawater in their garages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Breidenbaugh, who was visiting his daughter’s home in Golden Hind, said that her garage had upwards of seven inches of water in it during Sunday night’s peak tide. The house effectively became an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087668\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_011-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastic sheeting and sandbags are placed outside a home along Golden Hind Passage, as residents prepare for potential king tide flooding, in Corte Madera, on June 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This lot is a bit below high sea level, unfortunately,” he told KQED. “They’ve lost some stuff because they weren’t as diligent as they should be, but they’re learning fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breidenbaugh was drying out the garage with a fan Monday and said the family was going to line it with some polyethylene plastic sheeting before the tides are expected to rise again overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family has learned to keep everything in the garage, from a baby stroller to the washer and dryer, off the floor. Seawater remained pooled along the curb of his daughter’s house late into the morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’ll flood again tonight, so we’ll be doing this again tomorrow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087664\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_003-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A home along Golden Hind Passage is raised above its foundation in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. Some homeowners are elevating structures as part of long-term efforts to adapt to recurring tidal flooding. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Longer term, he said the family was planning to install a sump — a basin dug in a basement that drains water — in the garage, and considering building up perimeter walls around the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re helping them figure this property out and get it armored against the water,” he said. “We’ll figure it out. It might take a few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corte Madera Mayor Rosa Thomas said her office is also looking at solutions to protect the entire town. In January, sea water reached freeways, and spilled over levees, bike trails and into homes and businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said they’re hoping to build berms, or raised mounts of earth and soil material that slope, to keep water out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061526Flooding_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosa Thomas, mayor of Corte Madera, poses for a portrait in Corte Madera on June 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Corte Madera has a system of flood gates and pumps, Thomas said, but “when the tides are as high as they were back in January, there’s nowhere for the water to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corte Madera does have a FEMA-funded berm project in the pipeline, but Thomas said it’s been stalled under the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, she said, they’re looking at building temporary, inflatable berms ahead of next winter, when California is expecting stormier, wetter weather thanks to what could be a strong El Niño season. The arrival of the weather pattern likely means more intense atmospheric rivers, major snow events in the Sierra Nevada, and larger waves, coastal flooding, and higher sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The next big tidal flooding that we’re expecting is going to probably be around January [or] December of this year, so we were looking at how we can best be ready for that,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "For Marin County, Last Weekend’s Floods Were a Wake-Up Call",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last weekend’s storms, coupled with king tides, caught Marin County cities like Corte Madera, Sausalito and San Rafael off guard. Floodwaters spilled over levees, covered bike trails, and surrounded homes and businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nobody was seriously injured and the level of damage is still being assessed. But it’s a wake-up call for residents, both in Marin County and across the Bay Area, about the risk of more flooding in our future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3713712008&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068644/marin-county-looked-like-a-lagoon-after-king-tides-heavy-rain\">Marin County Looked Like ‘a Lagoon’ After King Tides, Heavy Rain | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:00] Hi, I’m Alan Montecillo, in for Ericka Cruz Guevara and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted. The Bay Area had a rough few weeks of holiday weather. It was cold, we got a lot of rain, and some places even got intense flooding, especially Marin County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TV newscast \u003c/strong>[00:00:24] Tides we had for the Bay Area many locations the highest we’ve seen since 1998. Business owners in Marin County who dealt with feet of standing water over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TV newscast \u003c/strong>[00:00:34] King tides and heavy rain once again flooding low-lying areas across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TV newscast \u003c/strong>[00:00:39] And for the fourth straight day, Marin County is getting the worst of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:44] Cities like Corte Madera, Sausalito, and San Rafael were caught off guard by the intensity of the storms coupled with king tides. Floodwaters spilled over levees, covered bike trails, and surrounded homes and businesses. For residents and officials like Corte Madera Mayor Rosa Thomas, the flooding was a reminder of how everyone needs to be ready.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rosa Thomas \u003c/strong>[00:01:11] It’s not just the person who has the property facing the bay, but it will tie up the entire town. And I think that that is a call for us to be united in tackling this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:28] Today, the flooding in Marin and what can be done to get us ready for the next storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:01:44] We were very dry for a long time this winter, right? I think we had a couple weeks of like very little rain and then there was like a bunch of rain around Christmas, right? And then like another set of storms this past weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:58] Ezra David Romero is a climate reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:02:02] And so the ground was really saturated and then we had a king tide and then a low pressure system just a regular a storm all happening at the same time. So it created like the perfect conditions you know for extra flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:02:18] Well, and you went with local and federal leaders in Marin earlier in the week to assess the damage. Where did you go? What did you see?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:02:27] We started off in San Rafael, just north of there, in an uncorporated community. And then we went to Marin City, we went to Sausalito, we just basically started north and then made our way down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ryan Davis \u003c/strong>[00:02:42] Everybody got their rain gear?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:02:46] This was a group of like many elected leaders and reporters and one of them was Supervisor Mary Sackett from Marin County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:02:54] The tide is out, but you can see here where the docks are, show you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:03:00] On this tour, Supervisor Mary Sackett brought us to multiple places across the county, you know, where places had been flooded, or like a levee had broke, or, you know, a business was underwater, things like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] And you can tell by looking at some of these homes that they are under the water level. If you walk out on that island in particular, you look and you’re like, they’re really under sea level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:03:28] One thing that’s interesting about Marin County is if you’re driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, you’re like in the mountains, right? And then you come down Highway 101 and you’re pretty close to the bay and then it shoots up to the mountains. So we’re not talking about a huge area. It’s like the sliver of land that’s rather low-lying, but it’s very populated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:03:49] There’s a lot of young families here. There’s lot of older families here, this is not the most affluent part of Marin. It’s lower than the average median income for the county and the cost of flood insurance is significant. In.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:04:03] And the big issue there is that a lot of that flatland area is land that wasn’t there before. Land we filled in as people, it’s called fill. You know, some of that was marshland, or it was like soggy, or it like physically the bay. And we built land there, we put sand and dirt there, and then we built on top of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:23] Oh, is that what reclaimed land is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:04:24] That’s what reclaimed land is, yeah. So in some way, it makes sense that these areas would want to flood again, right? And especially over time, they’re also sinking because buildings are heavy, the land is settling. So at the same time, the king tides are happening, there’s storms. All that together makes this like perfect storm of like flood proneness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:47] Was there damage to roads, buildings, was anyone hurt?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:04:51] I haven’t heard of any reports of anyone hurt so far, but I have talked to a number of people that said their cars have been flooded, homes and businesses have also been flooded. Mary Sackett says that there’s about a couple hundred places across Marin County that have flooded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:05:07] And so the streets were very flooded during that King Tide event. And many of the yards, homes, etc. Thank you very much. Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:20] Well, I can’t imagine what it was like for local businesses during this intense flooding. I know you met the manager of a local gym. Tell me what happened to their business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:05:35] I met a lot of business owners in my reporting, but on my first reporting trip, I met Ryan Davis. He’s the general manager of FitnessSF in Corte Madera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ryan Davis \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] So we’ve had events like this in 2005, about 20 years ago, and then in 98. So we’ll remember those, so we’ve tried to be as ready as possible. But we weren’t ready for the scale that ended up coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:06:00] It’s actually a place I’ve worked out before. When I’ve been reporting out there, I just go there because I’m a member there. It was interesting to go there with a three-foot line of sandbags and tarps. He said that the lagoon right behind their business was overflowing like a waterfall into their parking lot, and the water was trying to get in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ryan Davis \u003c/strong>[00:06:23] The exits and entrances, the water got up so high around the edge of the building probably I would say at least three feet of standing water surrounding the entire building that even with sandbags and plywood and tarps it was still coming through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:06:37] They were pretty proactive. They were like shop vacing the water out. He said they built one row of sandbags and they built another one because water was getting in. So they were like fighting to make sure the gym, you know, was going to be there for the gym rats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:52] Well, I mean, that does sound like a lot of adrenaline, but like not the kind you’re hoping for when you go to the gym. So I want to talk about the cause of this round of flooding. So it seems like thankfully no one was hurt. The amount of damage is still being assessed, but, but that it was, you know, really scary and intense for a lot of residents. What actually caused all of this damage and all of his flooding? It was the heavy rain, sea level rise, help me understand it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:07:21] A bit of it all, honestly. King tides are natural. It happens when the sun and moon are both at their closest to the earth, that pulls on the ocean with their strongest gravitational force. So basically, the high tide and the low tides, are going to be the biggest and lowest in that day. King Kong tides happen multiple times a year, usually in the winter. And there are other high tides at other times of the year. But what was different this time was that there was a king tide, there was storm, things were already over saturated and it was windy. So all these things together made that flooding worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] Ezra, how prepared was the county for this flooding? I mean, is there any kind of warning system, like, hey, there’s a high risk of flooding today or this week?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:08:21] The thing I heard over and over in my reporting this week, whether it was on Monday or in interviews on Tuesday or yesterday when I was out in San Rafael, is everyone was saying this caught them by surprise. We knew that King Tides were happening. The Weather Service puts out reports every single day. They send out to the cities, counties, journalists. We get those every single. So we knew the King Tide’s were happening, but the Weather Service did say is that You know, the storm outperformed their own forecast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:08:49] Where does climate change factor in here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:08:51] When it comes to storms, it’s hard to say how much in each storm human-caused climate change is infusing into that storm. But scientists have said that all storms are getting wetter because of climate change. Scientists often think of king tides as like the foreshadowing of the future when it comes to sea level rise in California the state is preparing for about like a foot of sea level rise by 2050 and like as many as six feet by 2100 and that’s basically like no ice sheets are melting You know filling up the ocean and then the oceans also expanding as it warms You know, as a byproduct, seas rise, and that will have an effect all over the world. Places like the Bay Area, right, where we have like 400 plus miles of shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:43] Yeah, there’s a line in your story that reads, “the high tides of today will become the daily tides of the future.” So king tides, normal thing that happens, but sea level rise plus wetter storms equals higher risk of dangerous flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:10:00] Yeah, when I talked to even to the Weather Service person who was out there on Monday, he was telling me that, you know, like, yeah, we think of these tides as what’s going to happen maybe regularly in the future. It won’t be just like a once in occurrence in 20 years type of thing. Basically, the message that I heard on Monday was like, we got to take this seriously, because like, Yeah, we this is like one time in a long time. This has flooded this badly, but we’re not very prepared in the long if this is going to happen. All the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] So let’s talk a little more about what can be done here. I mean, what safeguards are there, what needs to be done to prepare for this kind of thing in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] Yeah, I can’t quite answer what’s gonna be best for each community, but like there are things that people have done across the region, around the world. Done everything from like put in pumps to pump water out, they’ve built seawalls, they’ve like created these levees to soak up water, they’ve raised homes. In other parts of the world, they actually like have houses and buildings floating, right, so they’re going up and down with the tides. There’s like many things that can be done as like an immediate solution or a long-term one. Regionally, we have something called the Bay Conservation Development Commission that’s like a state agency. They have tasked every city, Every county in the Bay Area that’s touching the Bay and the coast to come up with a sea level rise plan by like 2034. And each city is sort of thinking about that, like how do we deal with this? But there are some big issues in the future for this. A lot of this is private land, you know, homes, businesses. Then you have this like pea soup of highways, right? You have the bridge coming from Richmond, you have Highway 101. So there’s lots to think about here, and it’s not an easy thing of like, let’s just build a seawall. It’s gonna take lots of going back and forth. There’s no real easy answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:13] Right, and I imagine there are so many agencies and municipalities and different economic political interests that might make a region-wide approach challenging. Is there money for these kinds of plans? Is that also going to be a challenge?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:12:30] Money is probably the biggest issue here. There was a lot of hope under the past administration that was heavily funding climate things, that we could get some of these projects built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:12:41] We have a plan that is shovel ready to build a sheet pile wall, which would replace this timber reinforced berm, which is about over 40 years old, and we applied for the brick and the FMA grants for some federal dollars for this, and both of those grants were canceled under this administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:13:00] These funding challengers are really real for a lot of these communities. And Supervisor Mary Sackett talked about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:13:06] The neighborhood hopes we do not give up on funding that. We’ve just got too many people living in this neighborhood that with any overtopping, not only would the homes right on Vendola be flooded, but the network of roads for everyone who’s out here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:13:22] We’re not talking about like a million dollars, right? We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars, maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars just to have these solutions in place because it takes a lot of time and a lot of money buying land, raising highways, re-imagining how communities work all in a small area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:13:41] You know, one of my frustrations is do we have to wait until there’s a disaster, or can we prevent the disaster from happening? And you know, we’ve really been focused on how do we prevent a significant disaster from happening here? How are we ready if dollars become available?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:14:04] So lots of work to be done to beef up protection against floods, not just in Marin, but all over the Bay Area. I also feel like as an individual, I’ve had to think a lot more about how I myself am prepared for various incoming natural disasters, whether it’s a fire or power outages or an earthquake. What does this mean for people in the meantime? Like, should I be going to Home Depot ASAP to buy sandbags?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:14:35] Yes, I think so, right? If I lived next to the bay, right across the street or something, or even relatively close, I would probably have sandbags ready to go. This is an interesting moment where people are thinking about this because the water was just here. But I think with wildfire and other things, or drought, we often forget about it, that You know, we live in a flood-prone area. When the waters go away and it’s summertime and it is warm and we’re out on the water surfing or whatever. So I think the time now is to actually get prepared before you forget about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:15:17] Well, that’s a solid New Year’s resolution, Ezra. Thank you for coming on the show. Appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:15:23] Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last weekend’s storms, coupled with king tides, caught Marin County cities like Corte Madera, Sausalito and San Rafael off guard. Floodwaters spilled over levees, covered bike trails, and surrounded homes and businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nobody was seriously injured and the level of damage is still being assessed. But it’s a wake-up call for residents, both in Marin County and across the Bay Area, about the risk of more flooding in our future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3713712008&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068644/marin-county-looked-like-a-lagoon-after-king-tides-heavy-rain\">Marin County Looked Like ‘a Lagoon’ After King Tides, Heavy Rain | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:00] Hi, I’m Alan Montecillo, in for Ericka Cruz Guevara and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted. The Bay Area had a rough few weeks of holiday weather. It was cold, we got a lot of rain, and some places even got intense flooding, especially Marin County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TV newscast \u003c/strong>[00:00:24] Tides we had for the Bay Area many locations the highest we’ve seen since 1998. Business owners in Marin County who dealt with feet of standing water over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TV newscast \u003c/strong>[00:00:34] King tides and heavy rain once again flooding low-lying areas across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>TV newscast \u003c/strong>[00:00:39] And for the fourth straight day, Marin County is getting the worst of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:44] Cities like Corte Madera, Sausalito, and San Rafael were caught off guard by the intensity of the storms coupled with king tides. Floodwaters spilled over levees, covered bike trails, and surrounded homes and businesses. For residents and officials like Corte Madera Mayor Rosa Thomas, the flooding was a reminder of how everyone needs to be ready.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rosa Thomas \u003c/strong>[00:01:11] It’s not just the person who has the property facing the bay, but it will tie up the entire town. And I think that that is a call for us to be united in tackling this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:28] Today, the flooding in Marin and what can be done to get us ready for the next storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:01:44] We were very dry for a long time this winter, right? I think we had a couple weeks of like very little rain and then there was like a bunch of rain around Christmas, right? And then like another set of storms this past weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:58] Ezra David Romero is a climate reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:02:02] And so the ground was really saturated and then we had a king tide and then a low pressure system just a regular a storm all happening at the same time. So it created like the perfect conditions you know for extra flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:02:18] Well, and you went with local and federal leaders in Marin earlier in the week to assess the damage. Where did you go? What did you see?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:02:27] We started off in San Rafael, just north of there, in an uncorporated community. And then we went to Marin City, we went to Sausalito, we just basically started north and then made our way down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ryan Davis \u003c/strong>[00:02:42] Everybody got their rain gear?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:02:46] This was a group of like many elected leaders and reporters and one of them was Supervisor Mary Sackett from Marin County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:02:54] The tide is out, but you can see here where the docks are, show you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:03:00] On this tour, Supervisor Mary Sackett brought us to multiple places across the county, you know, where places had been flooded, or like a levee had broke, or, you know, a business was underwater, things like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] And you can tell by looking at some of these homes that they are under the water level. If you walk out on that island in particular, you look and you’re like, they’re really under sea level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:03:28] One thing that’s interesting about Marin County is if you’re driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, you’re like in the mountains, right? And then you come down Highway 101 and you’re pretty close to the bay and then it shoots up to the mountains. So we’re not talking about a huge area. It’s like the sliver of land that’s rather low-lying, but it’s very populated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:03:49] There’s a lot of young families here. There’s lot of older families here, this is not the most affluent part of Marin. It’s lower than the average median income for the county and the cost of flood insurance is significant. In.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:04:03] And the big issue there is that a lot of that flatland area is land that wasn’t there before. Land we filled in as people, it’s called fill. You know, some of that was marshland, or it was like soggy, or it like physically the bay. And we built land there, we put sand and dirt there, and then we built on top of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:23] Oh, is that what reclaimed land is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:04:24] That’s what reclaimed land is, yeah. So in some way, it makes sense that these areas would want to flood again, right? And especially over time, they’re also sinking because buildings are heavy, the land is settling. So at the same time, the king tides are happening, there’s storms. All that together makes this like perfect storm of like flood proneness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:47] Was there damage to roads, buildings, was anyone hurt?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:04:51] I haven’t heard of any reports of anyone hurt so far, but I have talked to a number of people that said their cars have been flooded, homes and businesses have also been flooded. Mary Sackett says that there’s about a couple hundred places across Marin County that have flooded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:05:07] And so the streets were very flooded during that King Tide event. And many of the yards, homes, etc. Thank you very much. Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:20] Well, I can’t imagine what it was like for local businesses during this intense flooding. I know you met the manager of a local gym. Tell me what happened to their business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:05:35] I met a lot of business owners in my reporting, but on my first reporting trip, I met Ryan Davis. He’s the general manager of FitnessSF in Corte Madera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ryan Davis \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] So we’ve had events like this in 2005, about 20 years ago, and then in 98. So we’ll remember those, so we’ve tried to be as ready as possible. But we weren’t ready for the scale that ended up coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:06:00] It’s actually a place I’ve worked out before. When I’ve been reporting out there, I just go there because I’m a member there. It was interesting to go there with a three-foot line of sandbags and tarps. He said that the lagoon right behind their business was overflowing like a waterfall into their parking lot, and the water was trying to get in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ryan Davis \u003c/strong>[00:06:23] The exits and entrances, the water got up so high around the edge of the building probably I would say at least three feet of standing water surrounding the entire building that even with sandbags and plywood and tarps it was still coming through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:06:37] They were pretty proactive. They were like shop vacing the water out. He said they built one row of sandbags and they built another one because water was getting in. So they were like fighting to make sure the gym, you know, was going to be there for the gym rats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:52] Well, I mean, that does sound like a lot of adrenaline, but like not the kind you’re hoping for when you go to the gym. So I want to talk about the cause of this round of flooding. So it seems like thankfully no one was hurt. The amount of damage is still being assessed, but, but that it was, you know, really scary and intense for a lot of residents. What actually caused all of this damage and all of his flooding? It was the heavy rain, sea level rise, help me understand it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:07:21] A bit of it all, honestly. King tides are natural. It happens when the sun and moon are both at their closest to the earth, that pulls on the ocean with their strongest gravitational force. So basically, the high tide and the low tides, are going to be the biggest and lowest in that day. King Kong tides happen multiple times a year, usually in the winter. And there are other high tides at other times of the year. But what was different this time was that there was a king tide, there was storm, things were already over saturated and it was windy. So all these things together made that flooding worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] Ezra, how prepared was the county for this flooding? I mean, is there any kind of warning system, like, hey, there’s a high risk of flooding today or this week?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:08:21] The thing I heard over and over in my reporting this week, whether it was on Monday or in interviews on Tuesday or yesterday when I was out in San Rafael, is everyone was saying this caught them by surprise. We knew that King Tides were happening. The Weather Service puts out reports every single day. They send out to the cities, counties, journalists. We get those every single. So we knew the King Tide’s were happening, but the Weather Service did say is that You know, the storm outperformed their own forecast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:08:49] Where does climate change factor in here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:08:51] When it comes to storms, it’s hard to say how much in each storm human-caused climate change is infusing into that storm. But scientists have said that all storms are getting wetter because of climate change. Scientists often think of king tides as like the foreshadowing of the future when it comes to sea level rise in California the state is preparing for about like a foot of sea level rise by 2050 and like as many as six feet by 2100 and that’s basically like no ice sheets are melting You know filling up the ocean and then the oceans also expanding as it warms You know, as a byproduct, seas rise, and that will have an effect all over the world. Places like the Bay Area, right, where we have like 400 plus miles of shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:43] Yeah, there’s a line in your story that reads, “the high tides of today will become the daily tides of the future.” So king tides, normal thing that happens, but sea level rise plus wetter storms equals higher risk of dangerous flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:10:00] Yeah, when I talked to even to the Weather Service person who was out there on Monday, he was telling me that, you know, like, yeah, we think of these tides as what’s going to happen maybe regularly in the future. It won’t be just like a once in occurrence in 20 years type of thing. Basically, the message that I heard on Monday was like, we got to take this seriously, because like, Yeah, we this is like one time in a long time. This has flooded this badly, but we’re not very prepared in the long if this is going to happen. All the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] So let’s talk a little more about what can be done here. I mean, what safeguards are there, what needs to be done to prepare for this kind of thing in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] Yeah, I can’t quite answer what’s gonna be best for each community, but like there are things that people have done across the region, around the world. Done everything from like put in pumps to pump water out, they’ve built seawalls, they’ve like created these levees to soak up water, they’ve raised homes. In other parts of the world, they actually like have houses and buildings floating, right, so they’re going up and down with the tides. There’s like many things that can be done as like an immediate solution or a long-term one. Regionally, we have something called the Bay Conservation Development Commission that’s like a state agency. They have tasked every city, Every county in the Bay Area that’s touching the Bay and the coast to come up with a sea level rise plan by like 2034. And each city is sort of thinking about that, like how do we deal with this? But there are some big issues in the future for this. A lot of this is private land, you know, homes, businesses. Then you have this like pea soup of highways, right? You have the bridge coming from Richmond, you have Highway 101. So there’s lots to think about here, and it’s not an easy thing of like, let’s just build a seawall. It’s gonna take lots of going back and forth. There’s no real easy answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:13] Right, and I imagine there are so many agencies and municipalities and different economic political interests that might make a region-wide approach challenging. Is there money for these kinds of plans? Is that also going to be a challenge?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:12:30] Money is probably the biggest issue here. There was a lot of hope under the past administration that was heavily funding climate things, that we could get some of these projects built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:12:41] We have a plan that is shovel ready to build a sheet pile wall, which would replace this timber reinforced berm, which is about over 40 years old, and we applied for the brick and the FMA grants for some federal dollars for this, and both of those grants were canceled under this administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:13:00] These funding challengers are really real for a lot of these communities. And Supervisor Mary Sackett talked about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:13:06] The neighborhood hopes we do not give up on funding that. We’ve just got too many people living in this neighborhood that with any overtopping, not only would the homes right on Vendola be flooded, but the network of roads for everyone who’s out here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:13:22] We’re not talking about like a million dollars, right? We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars, maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars just to have these solutions in place because it takes a lot of time and a lot of money buying land, raising highways, re-imagining how communities work all in a small area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Sackett \u003c/strong>[00:13:41] You know, one of my frustrations is do we have to wait until there’s a disaster, or can we prevent the disaster from happening? And you know, we’ve really been focused on how do we prevent a significant disaster from happening here? How are we ready if dollars become available?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:14:04] So lots of work to be done to beef up protection against floods, not just in Marin, but all over the Bay Area. I also feel like as an individual, I’ve had to think a lot more about how I myself am prepared for various incoming natural disasters, whether it’s a fire or power outages or an earthquake. What does this mean for people in the meantime? Like, should I be going to Home Depot ASAP to buy sandbags?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ezra David Romero \u003c/strong>[00:14:35] Yes, I think so, right? If I lived next to the bay, right across the street or something, or even relatively close, I would probably have sandbags ready to go. This is an interesting moment where people are thinking about this because the water was just here. But I think with wildfire and other things, or drought, we often forget about it, that You know, we live in a flood-prone area. When the waters go away and it’s summertime and it is warm and we’re out on the water surfing or whatever. So I think the time now is to actually get prepared before you forget about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:15:17] Well, that’s a solid New Year’s resolution, Ezra. Thank you for coming on the show. Appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After weeks of on-and-off rainfall across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a>, clear skies appear to be on the horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday’s showers seem to be the last of a series of storms that have blown through the region \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068281/bay-area-braces-for-storm-that-could-become-a-rare-bomb-cyclone-ahead-of-holiday-travel\">since just before Christmas\u003c/a>, accompanied by widespread flooding, power outages and — finally — snow in the Sierras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the dryer conditions might be a welcome reprieve, National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Gass said they’ll be accompanied by a return of the chilly temperatures that marked early December’s forecast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Temperatures will turn colder,” he said. “We will see 30s return to the North Bay valleys and the city [San Francisco] itself will be generally in the mid -to-lower 40s, beginning on about Thursday morning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since mid-December, the Bay Area has been hit with significant rainfall, with totals upwards of 130% of annual averages for this time of year in some parts of the Bay Area, according to the National Weather Service.[aside postID=news_12068616 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1348762301-1020x680.jpg']The weather has led to road closures and widespread flooding in Marin, Sonoma, San Mateo and San Francisco counties this weekend, as the rainfall coincides with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999461/king-tides-to-flood-bay-area-shorelines-this-week-heres-where-and-when-to-safely-see-them\">historic king tides\u003c/a> across the Bay Area. Storms over the holidays also sparked flash flood warnings, downed trees and poles and caused power outages throughout the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake Tahoe’s snowpack has also caught up with its usual numbers after a slow start to the season. While some ski resorts in Lake Tahoe had delayed their opening this season due to dry conditions through mid-December, over the Christmas week, more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DSx3wdmEhCD/\">6 feet \u003c/a>of snow fell on slopes across the sierras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest storm has dropped another 4 feet of fresh powder at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort near Truckee over the last three days, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Jeffrey Wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the next week or so looks pretty dry, he said the snow that’s accumulated in recent storms has built a pretty solid foundation — and is expected to stay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have now reached the median snowfall for the 2026 water year,” Wood told KQED. “All it took was a couple of cooler storms to get the snow to pile up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The median snowfall for Jan. 5 is 115.55 inches. As of today, 2026’s total is 115.75, according to Wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So doing pretty good, right on par there,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After weeks of on-and-off rainfall across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a>, clear skies appear to be on the horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday’s showers seem to be the last of a series of storms that have blown through the region \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068281/bay-area-braces-for-storm-that-could-become-a-rare-bomb-cyclone-ahead-of-holiday-travel\">since just before Christmas\u003c/a>, accompanied by widespread flooding, power outages and — finally — snow in the Sierras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the dryer conditions might be a welcome reprieve, National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Gass said they’ll be accompanied by a return of the chilly temperatures that marked early December’s forecast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Temperatures will turn colder,” he said. “We will see 30s return to the North Bay valleys and the city [San Francisco] itself will be generally in the mid -to-lower 40s, beginning on about Thursday morning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since mid-December, the Bay Area has been hit with significant rainfall, with totals upwards of 130% of annual averages for this time of year in some parts of the Bay Area, according to the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The weather has led to road closures and widespread flooding in Marin, Sonoma, San Mateo and San Francisco counties this weekend, as the rainfall coincides with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999461/king-tides-to-flood-bay-area-shorelines-this-week-heres-where-and-when-to-safely-see-them\">historic king tides\u003c/a> across the Bay Area. Storms over the holidays also sparked flash flood warnings, downed trees and poles and caused power outages throughout the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lake Tahoe’s snowpack has also caught up with its usual numbers after a slow start to the season. While some ski resorts in Lake Tahoe had delayed their opening this season due to dry conditions through mid-December, over the Christmas week, more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DSx3wdmEhCD/\">6 feet \u003c/a>of snow fell on slopes across the sierras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest storm has dropped another 4 feet of fresh powder at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort near Truckee over the last three days, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Jeffrey Wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the next week or so looks pretty dry, he said the snow that’s accumulated in recent storms has built a pretty solid foundation — and is expected to stay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have now reached the median snowfall for the 2026 water year,” Wood told KQED. “All it took was a couple of cooler storms to get the snow to pile up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The median snowfall for Jan. 5 is 115.55 inches. As of today, 2026’s total is 115.75, according to Wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So doing pretty good, right on par there,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Marin County Looked Like ‘a Lagoon’ After King Tides, Heavy Rain",
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"content": "\u003cp>A 3-foot-tall line of grey sandbags and blue tarps surrounded the entrance of Fitness SF in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">Corte Madera \u003c/a>on Monday morning. This makeshift wall and a temporary pump stopped water from a nearby lagoon from turning the gym into a swamp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would have easily been 2 feet underwater,” said Ryan Davis, the gym’s general manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The intensity of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068616/marin-county-911-service-restored-after-potentially-flood-related-outage\">this weekend’s storm\u003c/a>, coupled with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018103/king-tides-foreshadow-far-wetter-future-sf-shoreline\">king tide\u003c/a>, caught Marin County cities like Corte Madera, Sausalito and San Rafael off guard. Floodwaters spilled over levees, covered bike trails, and surrounded homes and businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials told KQED on Monday the exact damage estimates aren’t yet known, but that hundreds of structures were impacted by the flooding brought on by stronger-than-expected rainfall and king tides, the highest tides of the year. Scientists say these tides, which occur every November, December and January when the sun, moon and Earth align and create a stronger-than-normal gravitational pull, are a foreshadowing of the future in our warming climate. The high tides of today will become the daily tides of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard for everyone to imagine the worst,” Corte Madera Mayor Rosa Thomas said. “People have told me leading up to this, ‘It’s come only this far up my driveway, or that far up my driveway, so I don’t have to prepare for anything more,’ and I think people have to realize that there’s a first time for everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Brian Garcia said the weekend’s storms outperformed his office’s predictions, but that they weren’t out of the realm of possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068729\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12068729 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cars drive on Highway 101, flooded by the “King Tides” on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, near Corte Madera in Marin County, California. \u003ccite>(Ethan Swope/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The modeling is based on what we’ve seen in the past, what the physics say, but the climate is changing,” he said, noting that the Bay Area has seen sea level rise of nearly 2 millimeters per year in recent years. While seas have risen only about 8 inches since the 1880s, the ocean and the bay could rise by about a foot by midcentury and more than 6 feet by the end of the century — thanks mainly to human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King tides in the region were already at a 28-year high, at 2.5 feet above ground level according to the weather service’s tidal gauge in San Francisco, and Friday and Saturday’s showers dumped more than 2 inches of rain across areas of Marin, and even more in coastal regions. Strong winds created an additional storm surge, forcing even more water onto land as rain turned streets into rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing stronger storms as we go forward, and the predictions are that we are going to continue to see more intensity in the storms and wilder swings,” Garcia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could mean more flooding situations like last weekend — and more significant ones, since the system was not classified as an atmospheric river, which are common during Bay Area winters and can be marked by higher rainfall totals.[aside postID=news_12068616 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/GettyImages-1348762301-1020x680.jpg']“An atmospheric river could have made this a lot worse,” Garcia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the scale of the flooding alarmed North Bay Rep. Jared Huffman, who toured some of the county’s flooded areas on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In almost every direction in a place like Marin County, you’ve got vulnerability,” he said. “I hope we don’t have to see catastrophic damage to have a greater commitment to resiliency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water seeped around numerous retail and residential areas in low-lying parts of Marin County, including the Larkspur Marina neighborhood, which sits along the Corte Madera Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The streets looked like a lagoon,” Larkspur Mayor Stephanie Andre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water pooling on major thoroughfares also caused major delays along Highway 101 over the weekend, after about 2.5 feet of water quickly rose along the route, Thomas said. Exits had to be shut down for multiple hours because of standing water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As rain continued on Monday, the highway’s northbound off-ramp to Highway 1, which leads to Sausalito, was again closed due to flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said when rain, king tides and storm surge all combine, the impacts don’t just harm those bayfront properties, but “tie up the entire town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068732\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12068732\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1499\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People wade through an RV park flooded by the “King Tides” on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, near Corte Madera in Marin County, California. \u003ccite>(Ethan Swope/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That is a call for us to be united in tackling this,” Thomas said. “It’s a county problem, and we have to approach it that way. And we all have to participate in the solutions together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has tasked every county and city around the lip of San Francisco Bay and the coast to come up with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984830/california-mandates-coastal-cities-plan-for-future-sea-level-rise\">sea level rise plan by 2034\u003c/a>. The solutions should ideally deal with today’s flooding and the high water of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said Corte Madera has a climate action plan to address related issues, like increased flood risk, and is looking at creating physical barriers that can help reroute water. In 2023, the city held \u003ca href=\"https://cortemaderaadapts.org/shoreline\">a listening tour\u003c/a> to develop a community vision for adaptation to a future with rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Larkspur, city officials attempted to get extra pumps into residential areas to drain flood water, but Andre said that pumping isn’t effective during elevated tides. She said that the city is hoping to work with Huffman to secure funding to strengthen some of its coastal retaining walls, especially as Marin continues to deal with sea level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One neighborhood had applied for $18 million in federal grant funding to build a new sheet pile wall meant to keep water out. County supervisor Mary Sackett said the current 40-year-old berm wouldn’t be able to stop any overtopping of floodwater, threatening homes and the entire road system around Vendola Drive in Santa Venetia, a community in eastern Marin. Like many federal grant programs, issuance of that money has been paused for months under President Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if it did become available, though, it won’t be enough to cover the full cost of the project, and, Huffman said, it “is not sustainable in the long term, especially with these tides and all of the volatility with our weather.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not going to give up on funding that longer-term solution,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What those more lasting solutions might look like, local leaders don’t really know. Sackett said the focus is often too local on how to prevent disaster in one city or neighborhood. She said the more pertinent question that needs answering is: “How do we make this entire area more resilient?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials told KQED on Monday the exact damage estimates aren’t yet known, but that hundreds of structures were impacted by the flooding brought on by stronger-than-expected rainfall and king tides, the highest tides of the year. Scientists say these tides, which occur every November, December and January when the sun, moon and Earth align and create a stronger-than-normal gravitational pull, are a foreshadowing of the future in our warming climate. The high tides of today will become the daily tides of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard for everyone to imagine the worst,” Corte Madera Mayor Rosa Thomas said. “People have told me leading up to this, ‘It’s come only this far up my driveway, or that far up my driveway, so I don’t have to prepare for anything more,’ and I think people have to realize that there’s a first time for everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Brian Garcia said the weekend’s storms outperformed his office’s predictions, but that they weren’t out of the realm of possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068729\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12068729 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/FloodingMarinCountyAP-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cars drive on Highway 101, flooded by the “King Tides” on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, near Corte Madera in Marin County, California. \u003ccite>(Ethan Swope/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The modeling is based on what we’ve seen in the past, what the physics say, but the climate is changing,” he said, noting that the Bay Area has seen sea level rise of nearly 2 millimeters per year in recent years. While seas have risen only about 8 inches since the 1880s, the ocean and the bay could rise by about a foot by midcentury and more than 6 feet by the end of the century — thanks mainly to human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King tides in the region were already at a 28-year high, at 2.5 feet above ground level according to the weather service’s tidal gauge in San Francisco, and Friday and Saturday’s showers dumped more than 2 inches of rain across areas of Marin, and even more in coastal regions. Strong winds created an additional storm surge, forcing even more water onto land as rain turned streets into rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing stronger storms as we go forward, and the predictions are that we are going to continue to see more intensity in the storms and wilder swings,” Garcia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could mean more flooding situations like last weekend — and more significant ones, since the system was not classified as an atmospheric river, which are common during Bay Area winters and can be marked by higher rainfall totals.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“An atmospheric river could have made this a lot worse,” Garcia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the scale of the flooding alarmed North Bay Rep. Jared Huffman, who toured some of the county’s flooded areas on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In almost every direction in a place like Marin County, you’ve got vulnerability,” he said. “I hope we don’t have to see catastrophic damage to have a greater commitment to resiliency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water seeped around numerous retail and residential areas in low-lying parts of Marin County, including the Larkspur Marina neighborhood, which sits along the Corte Madera Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The streets looked like a lagoon,” Larkspur Mayor Stephanie Andre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water pooling on major thoroughfares also caused major delays along Highway 101 over the weekend, after about 2.5 feet of water quickly rose along the route, Thomas said. Exits had to be shut down for multiple hours because of standing water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As rain continued on Monday, the highway’s northbound off-ramp to Highway 1, which leads to Sausalito, was again closed due to flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said when rain, king tides and storm surge all combine, the impacts don’t just harm those bayfront properties, but “tie up the entire town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068732\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12068732\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1499\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/MarinCountyFloodingAP3-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People wade through an RV park flooded by the “King Tides” on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, near Corte Madera in Marin County, California. \u003ccite>(Ethan Swope/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That is a call for us to be united in tackling this,” Thomas said. “It’s a county problem, and we have to approach it that way. And we all have to participate in the solutions together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has tasked every county and city around the lip of San Francisco Bay and the coast to come up with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984830/california-mandates-coastal-cities-plan-for-future-sea-level-rise\">sea level rise plan by 2034\u003c/a>. The solutions should ideally deal with today’s flooding and the high water of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said Corte Madera has a climate action plan to address related issues, like increased flood risk, and is looking at creating physical barriers that can help reroute water. In 2023, the city held \u003ca href=\"https://cortemaderaadapts.org/shoreline\">a listening tour\u003c/a> to develop a community vision for adaptation to a future with rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Larkspur, city officials attempted to get extra pumps into residential areas to drain flood water, but Andre said that pumping isn’t effective during elevated tides. She said that the city is hoping to work with Huffman to secure funding to strengthen some of its coastal retaining walls, especially as Marin continues to deal with sea level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One neighborhood had applied for $18 million in federal grant funding to build a new sheet pile wall meant to keep water out. County supervisor Mary Sackett said the current 40-year-old berm wouldn’t be able to stop any overtopping of floodwater, threatening homes and the entire road system around Vendola Drive in Santa Venetia, a community in eastern Marin. Like many federal grant programs, issuance of that money has been paused for months under President Donald Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if it did become available, though, it won’t be enough to cover the full cost of the project, and, Huffman said, it “is not sustainable in the long term, especially with these tides and all of the volatility with our weather.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not going to give up on funding that longer-term solution,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What those more lasting solutions might look like, local leaders don’t really know. Sackett said the focus is often too local on how to prevent disaster in one city or neighborhood. She said the more pertinent question that needs answering is: “How do we make this entire area more resilient?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">Marin County\u003c/a> has restored 911 service after an hourslong outage Sunday night that might have been connected to recent flooding, officials said Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials said that the outage was due to an AT&T service problem affecting the local 911 line, as well as other landlines and cellphones across Marin. Service was restored about 1:30 a.m., and calls were working as usual, the county said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We noticed what was potentially a catastrophic failure in the Marin County 911 system,” said Interim Fire Chief Mike Marcucci.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials noticed the service disruption around 8:30 p.m., after reports that some residents’ 911 calls dropped or received busy signals. Some people were able to get through to the operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause is still unknown and under investigation, though Marcucci said that officials believe flooding could have contributed to the network issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outage coincided with historically high king tides and the latest in a series of winter rainstorms to hit the Bay Area in recent weeks. Over the weekend, up to 1.2 feet of water collected in low-lying areas of Marin County, flooding multiple roads and intersections.[aside postID=news_12068307 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251222-PGEUpdates-01-BL_qed.jpg']According to Marcucci, the 911 issues began about an hour after first responders received reports of flooding at an AT&T substation in San Rafael. He said that county officials have also heard from Verizon, another network carrier it contracts with, that it might also have been experiencing interruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AT&T and Verizon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marcucci said that the county’s network of first responders resorted to using a backup radio system to contact each other and forward service requests while service was disrupted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county told residents that in case of an emergency, they should go to their nearest fire station if they were unable to get through to 911 operators via phone. According to Marcucci, one person in Larkspur did go to a fire station to seek help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that no other major incidents have been reported during the outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">Marin County\u003c/a> has restored 911 service after an hourslong outage Sunday night that might have been connected to recent flooding, officials said Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials said that the outage was due to an AT&T service problem affecting the local 911 line, as well as other landlines and cellphones across Marin. Service was restored about 1:30 a.m., and calls were working as usual, the county said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We noticed what was potentially a catastrophic failure in the Marin County 911 system,” said Interim Fire Chief Mike Marcucci.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials noticed the service disruption around 8:30 p.m., after reports that some residents’ 911 calls dropped or received busy signals. Some people were able to get through to the operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause is still unknown and under investigation, though Marcucci said that officials believe flooding could have contributed to the network issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outage coincided with historically high king tides and the latest in a series of winter rainstorms to hit the Bay Area in recent weeks. Over the weekend, up to 1.2 feet of water collected in low-lying areas of Marin County, flooding multiple roads and intersections.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>According to Marcucci, the 911 issues began about an hour after first responders received reports of flooding at an AT&T substation in San Rafael. He said that county officials have also heard from Verizon, another network carrier it contracts with, that it might also have been experiencing interruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AT&T and Verizon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marcucci said that the county’s network of first responders resorted to using a backup radio system to contact each other and forward service requests while service was disrupted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county told residents that in case of an emergency, they should go to their nearest fire station if they were unable to get through to 911 operators via phone. According to Marcucci, one person in Larkspur did go to a fire station to seek help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that no other major incidents have been reported during the outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, December 23, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christmas is two days away which means Santa Claus is pulling overtime. He’s at the mall taking photos and he’s project managing toy production. This story is all about the work of being Santa. So, if you’re listening with a child who’s expecting a visit from jolly old Saint Nick this year, you may want to turn down the volume. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California is preparing for another storm system that could bring dangerous conditions to large portions of the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/shows/kcrw-reports/stories/its-go-time-for-santa\">\u003cstrong>It’s Go Time For Santa\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Old Saint Nick is a total rock star to little kids, and December is when he goes on tour. On the calendar: photos at the mall, appearances at fundraisers, and official tree lighting ceremonies. But what does it take to maintain the magic of Christmas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myk Price is a professional Santa performer. This is his fourth year of performing in public – doing everything from photoshoots to fundraisers. “But I’ve actually been wearing the suit for private parties and friends’ kids for a little over 30 years,” Price said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like a lot of Santas, Price is naturally jolly, but there’s something that makes him a little different. “As of today, I am one of perhaps seven Black Santas in the entirety of California, maybe eight,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the Santa community immediately welcomed him into its peppermint-perfumed embrace. And while people of all backgrounds are thrilled to see him, on occasion a kid will say “hey you’re Black, you don’t look like the real Santa.” Price has a careful response. “Many people see Santa in many different ways, and have for centuries, and people have certain pictures in their heads. And just sometimes, depending on who’s here, there is somebody who really needs to see me looking like this. And so today I look like this. Tomorrow I can look like somebody else. It’s all a part of Christmas magic,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068281/bay-area-braces-for-storm-that-could-become-a-rare-bomb-cyclone-ahead-of-holiday-travel\">\u003cstrong>Storm Expected To Create Dangerous Conditions Across California\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999695/3-storms-will-bring-much-needed-rain-to-bay-area-and-snow-in-the-sierras\">weekend of rainfall\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">the Bay Area \u003c/a>and the rest of the state are bracing for days of dangerous stormy conditions expected to begin Tuesday night and extend through the rest of the week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two wind-fueled systems will hit the region throughout the Christmas holiday week, bringing a possibility of up to 80-mile-per-hour gusts, flood conditions and widespread power outages. “We really have several waves of potentially strong to moderate showers and thunderstorms, and along with that, we’re going to have very strong winds at the highest peaks,” said Joe Merchant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Monterey office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redding has experienced major flooding after Sunday’s rainfall. City officials issued warnings to avoid multiple major roadways, and urged people to stay home and avoid driving when possible. According to Redding Mayor Mike Littau, a person who was stuck as water entered their vehicle died after calling 911 Sunday night. Littau said the person’s phone died while they were making the emergency call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Southern California is likely to see the heaviest rainfall, late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service is warning of potentially life-threatening floods. \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/climate-environment/atmospheric-river-la-holiday-christmas-storm\">Evacuation orders went into effect Tuesday morning\u003c/a> for nearly 400 properties in “various recent burn scar areas,” according to the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, December 23, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christmas is two days away which means Santa Claus is pulling overtime. He’s at the mall taking photos and he’s project managing toy production. This story is all about the work of being Santa. So, if you’re listening with a child who’s expecting a visit from jolly old Saint Nick this year, you may want to turn down the volume. \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California is preparing for another storm system that could bring dangerous conditions to large portions of the state.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/shows/kcrw-reports/stories/its-go-time-for-santa\">\u003cstrong>It’s Go Time For Santa\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Old Saint Nick is a total rock star to little kids, and December is when he goes on tour. On the calendar: photos at the mall, appearances at fundraisers, and official tree lighting ceremonies. But what does it take to maintain the magic of Christmas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myk Price is a professional Santa performer. This is his fourth year of performing in public – doing everything from photoshoots to fundraisers. “But I’ve actually been wearing the suit for private parties and friends’ kids for a little over 30 years,” Price said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like a lot of Santas, Price is naturally jolly, but there’s something that makes him a little different. “As of today, I am one of perhaps seven Black Santas in the entirety of California, maybe eight,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the Santa community immediately welcomed him into its peppermint-perfumed embrace. And while people of all backgrounds are thrilled to see him, on occasion a kid will say “hey you’re Black, you don’t look like the real Santa.” Price has a careful response. “Many people see Santa in many different ways, and have for centuries, and people have certain pictures in their heads. And just sometimes, depending on who’s here, there is somebody who really needs to see me looking like this. And so today I look like this. Tomorrow I can look like somebody else. It’s all a part of Christmas magic,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068281/bay-area-braces-for-storm-that-could-become-a-rare-bomb-cyclone-ahead-of-holiday-travel\">\u003cstrong>Storm Expected To Create Dangerous Conditions Across California\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999695/3-storms-will-bring-much-needed-rain-to-bay-area-and-snow-in-the-sierras\">weekend of rainfall\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">the Bay Area \u003c/a>and the rest of the state are bracing for days of dangerous stormy conditions expected to begin Tuesday night and extend through the rest of the week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two wind-fueled systems will hit the region throughout the Christmas holiday week, bringing a possibility of up to 80-mile-per-hour gusts, flood conditions and widespread power outages. “We really have several waves of potentially strong to moderate showers and thunderstorms, and along with that, we’re going to have very strong winds at the highest peaks,” said Joe Merchant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Monterey office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redding has experienced major flooding after Sunday’s rainfall. City officials issued warnings to avoid multiple major roadways, and urged people to stay home and avoid driving when possible. According to Redding Mayor Mike Littau, a person who was stuck as water entered their vehicle died after calling 911 Sunday night. Littau said the person’s phone died while they were making the emergency call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Southern California is likely to see the heaviest rainfall, late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service is warning of potentially life-threatening floods. \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/brief/news/climate-environment/atmospheric-river-la-holiday-christmas-storm\">Evacuation orders went into effect Tuesday morning\u003c/a> for nearly 400 properties in “various recent burn scar areas,” according to the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Amber McZeal had just wrapped up her first summer semester back at Southern University of New Orleans in August 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then the big tropical storm came, which was crazy, massive,” she said. “And then Katrina hit Aug. 29.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/mob/katrina\">Category 3\u003c/a> storm — with 120 mph winds and a surge over 12 feet tall in some areas — decimating New Orleans and other coastal towns along the Mississippi shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath, 1,833 people died and survivors were left stranded on rooftops as the federal government was slow to respond. Thousands of people — mostly poor and Black — were displaced in one of the largest natural disasters in U.S. history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, some who were evacuated and relocated to other parts of the country, including the Bay Area, reflect on how Katrina changed their lives and how they remain rooted to a place that, for them, is more than geography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many of her neighbors, McZeal, who now lives in Oakland, initially planned to ride out Katrina, which made landfall two days before her 22nd birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m glad I didn’t, because my apartment got 8 feet of water at the bottom and then mold from the roof,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amber McZeal sits on the porch at DeFremery Park in Oakland on Aug. 28, 2025. She evacuated to the Bay Area from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>McZeal evacuated to Mississippi with friends and later returned to a ravaged New Orleans. She ultimately decided to leave Louisiana — where she said her ancestors have lived since the 1700s — after suffering a respiratory tract infection and growing weary of battling the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, she accepted the government’s offer to pay for a hotel room outside of New Orleans in early 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a forced exile, if you will, or forced displacement,” McZeal said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She landed in Emeryville, where a friend had a spare hotel room. She joined organizers pressing the U.S. government to follow the \u003ca href=\"https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights\">United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights\u003c/a>, which they interpreted to mean that New Orleanians should be able to return to their homes there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many never did — not by choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>National disaster prompts local relief\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Nell Myhand, then a Bay Area volunteer with the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://globalwomenstrike.net/\">Global Women’s Strike\u003c/a>, worked to support Katrina evacuees, many of whom were low-income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our question was not, what kind of charity can we provide for them, but how can we call attention to the violence that is happening to them at the hands of the government?” Myhand said. “In some countries, in natural disasters, they respond to them by moving people out of the danger as close as possible to where they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But in the case of Katrina, the U.S. government decided to disperse people from Louisiana, throughout the country, far away from their homes, from their families, sometimes in places where they had never been before and didn’t have connection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054222\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty-1536x1021.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A historic marker honors volunteers outside Waveland’s Ground Zero Hurricane Museum, in a town that was hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina, on Aug. 4, 2025, in Waveland, Mississippi. Katrina resulted in nearly 1,400 deaths, according to revised statistics from the National Hurricane Center, and remains the costliest storm in U.S. history at around $200 billion in today’s dollars. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Myhand said many people were placed in hotel rooms without kitchens or transportation, leaving volunteers scrambling to meet basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was no central place where we could say, ‘Where are the evacuees who came to the Bay Area?’ There was no coordination that helped us get ready for the folks who were coming here,” Myhand said. “There was really no reason that they had to come here in the first place, except that they were being displaced from that very vital location, that geography.”[aside postID=forum_2010101911063 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2025/08/clint-smith-katrina.png']About 1,700 people relocated to California after Katrina. A 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art3full.pdf\">report\u003c/a> found that only up to 3% of evacuees came to California and stayed a year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chet Hewitt, the head of Alameda County’s Social Services Agency at the time, said of the 1,700 people who came to the Bay Area, 1,100 were in Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To meet their needs, the county set up a “one-stop center” in Hayward, where retired social workers helped 400 families apply for housing assistance, food stamps, school enrollment, replacement medications and new IDs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kind of public, private, faith and nonprofit partnerships were essential,” Hewitt said. “The government has a critical role to play — particularly in long-term assistance — but the more rapid response was often of a more communal nature, with the faith community and nonprofits stepping up. We were building a system to respond, not relying on any one segment to do all of the work alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Bay Area becomes home\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over the last 20 years, McZeal built her life in Oakland, earning degrees in psychology and a doctorate in trauma and sound therapy. She said \u003ca href=\"https://decolonizingthepsyche.com/\">her work is deeply shaped\u003c/a> by the traumas she endured after Katrina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a gem in my heart. New Orleans made me. It ushered me into all of the things that I eventually turned into a job, a vocation, a career path,” McZeal said. “I work in cultural transformation now, and I can, for sure, say it’s directly tied to my experience living through Katrina.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has thought about moving back to Louisiana, as other evacuees in the Bay Area have, but she said she’s happy where she is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054188\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054188\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dan Smolkin and his wife, Luisa Hernandez, sit in their Half Moon Bay home on Aug. 27, 2025, in a room soon to become a nursery as they prepare for their first child. Smolkin and his family evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and later resettled in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Maybe one day when I’m old, I’ll settle, because I don’t even want to live in the heat,” she said, laughing. “You know the Bay grows on you. That 61-degree weather.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Smolkin also found himself resettled in the Bay Area. He arrived with his parents and grandparents to stay with his uncle after floodwaters engulfed their New Orleans home just days after his 17th birthday. Smolkin’s parents decided he should stay with family in Palo Alto to finish high school, while they returned to salvage what they could.[aside postID=arts_13980557 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/250811-POOSIE-HURRICANE-KATRINA-MD-01-KQED.jpg']“Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think that I would end up becoming a Californian,” Smolkin said. “One of the things that I’ve struggled with is I wasn’t there in those couple of months where my parents literally were gutting our house down to the studs, and there was part of me that felt like I was missing out on being part of that recovery effort for my family, but also being there in New Orleans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His parents later rejoined him in the Bay, and he participated in the relief efforts while attending James Madison University in Virginia, where he and his peers \u003ca href=\"https://www.jmu.edu/news/2015/11/20-katrina-mm-oct15.shtml\">routinely traveled into Katrina-ravaged areas\u003c/a> to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smolkin now lives in Half Moon Bay, where he volunteers with \u003ca href=\"https://coastsidehope.org/\">Coastside Hope\u003c/a>, helping people with food insecurity, immigration and other needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to wait until there is something truly bad that happens to jump in, but rather recognizing there are these ongoing, omnipresent needs in the community. We should all be reaching out and helping in our communities in some way,” he said. “That’s part of what really stuck with me from Katrina, that there’s so much value in having strongly built safety nets and coordinated programs to support people when they’re truly in need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054190\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054190\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mementos from New Orleans sit on a shelf in Dan Smolkin’s home in Half Moon Bay on Aug. 27, 2025. He and his family evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and resettled in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At home, Smolkin and his wife have a room ready for their first child, a boy due in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hopes Louisiana will remain a part of his son’s life, starting with the family’s annual crawfish boil at his uncle’s home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, New Orleans isn’t just a place, but it’s an identity, and something that I hope to be able to impart on my kid,” Smolkin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Amber McZeal had just wrapped up her first summer semester back at Southern University of New Orleans in August 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Then the big tropical storm came, which was crazy, massive,” she said. “And then Katrina hit Aug. 29.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/mob/katrina\">Category 3\u003c/a> storm — with 120 mph winds and a surge over 12 feet tall in some areas — decimating New Orleans and other coastal towns along the Mississippi shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath, 1,833 people died and survivors were left stranded on rooftops as the federal government was slow to respond. Thousands of people — mostly poor and Black — were displaced in one of the largest natural disasters in U.S. history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, some who were evacuated and relocated to other parts of the country, including the Bay Area, reflect on how Katrina changed their lives and how they remain rooted to a place that, for them, is more than geography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many of her neighbors, McZeal, who now lives in Oakland, initially planned to ride out Katrina, which made landfall two days before her 22nd birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m glad I didn’t, because my apartment got 8 feet of water at the bottom and then mold from the roof,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250828-KatrinaBayEvacuees-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amber McZeal sits on the porch at DeFremery Park in Oakland on Aug. 28, 2025. She evacuated to the Bay Area from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>McZeal evacuated to Mississippi with friends and later returned to a ravaged New Orleans. She ultimately decided to leave Louisiana — where she said her ancestors have lived since the 1700s — after suffering a respiratory tract infection and growing weary of battling the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, she accepted the government’s offer to pay for a hotel room outside of New Orleans in early 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a forced exile, if you will, or forced displacement,” McZeal said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She landed in Emeryville, where a friend had a spare hotel room. She joined organizers pressing the U.S. government to follow the \u003ca href=\"https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights\">United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights\u003c/a>, which they interpreted to mean that New Orleanians should be able to return to their homes there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many never did — not by choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>National disaster prompts local relief\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Nell Myhand, then a Bay Area volunteer with the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://globalwomenstrike.net/\">Global Women’s Strike\u003c/a>, worked to support Katrina evacuees, many of whom were low-income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our question was not, what kind of charity can we provide for them, but how can we call attention to the violence that is happening to them at the hands of the government?” Myhand said. “In some countries, in natural disasters, they respond to them by moving people out of the danger as close as possible to where they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But in the case of Katrina, the U.S. government decided to disperse people from Louisiana, throughout the country, far away from their homes, from their families, sometimes in places where they had never been before and didn’t have connection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054222\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/HurricaneKatrinaGetty-1536x1021.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A historic marker honors volunteers outside Waveland’s Ground Zero Hurricane Museum, in a town that was hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina, on Aug. 4, 2025, in Waveland, Mississippi. Katrina resulted in nearly 1,400 deaths, according to revised statistics from the National Hurricane Center, and remains the costliest storm in U.S. history at around $200 billion in today’s dollars. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Myhand said many people were placed in hotel rooms without kitchens or transportation, leaving volunteers scrambling to meet basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was no central place where we could say, ‘Where are the evacuees who came to the Bay Area?’ There was no coordination that helped us get ready for the folks who were coming here,” Myhand said. “There was really no reason that they had to come here in the first place, except that they were being displaced from that very vital location, that geography.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>About 1,700 people relocated to California after Katrina. A 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art3full.pdf\">report\u003c/a> found that only up to 3% of evacuees came to California and stayed a year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chet Hewitt, the head of Alameda County’s Social Services Agency at the time, said of the 1,700 people who came to the Bay Area, 1,100 were in Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To meet their needs, the county set up a “one-stop center” in Hayward, where retired social workers helped 400 families apply for housing assistance, food stamps, school enrollment, replacement medications and new IDs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kind of public, private, faith and nonprofit partnerships were essential,” Hewitt said. “The government has a critical role to play — particularly in long-term assistance — but the more rapid response was often of a more communal nature, with the faith community and nonprofits stepping up. We were building a system to respond, not relying on any one segment to do all of the work alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Bay Area becomes home\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over the last 20 years, McZeal built her life in Oakland, earning degrees in psychology and a doctorate in trauma and sound therapy. She said \u003ca href=\"https://decolonizingthepsyche.com/\">her work is deeply shaped\u003c/a> by the traumas she endured after Katrina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a gem in my heart. New Orleans made me. It ushered me into all of the things that I eventually turned into a job, a vocation, a career path,” McZeal said. “I work in cultural transformation now, and I can, for sure, say it’s directly tied to my experience living through Katrina.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has thought about moving back to Louisiana, as other evacuees in the Bay Area have, but she said she’s happy where she is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054188\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054188\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dan Smolkin and his wife, Luisa Hernandez, sit in their Half Moon Bay home on Aug. 27, 2025, in a room soon to become a nursery as they prepare for their first child. Smolkin and his family evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and later resettled in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Maybe one day when I’m old, I’ll settle, because I don’t even want to live in the heat,” she said, laughing. “You know the Bay grows on you. That 61-degree weather.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Smolkin also found himself resettled in the Bay Area. He arrived with his parents and grandparents to stay with his uncle after floodwaters engulfed their New Orleans home just days after his 17th birthday. Smolkin’s parents decided he should stay with family in Palo Alto to finish high school, while they returned to salvage what they could.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think that I would end up becoming a Californian,” Smolkin said. “One of the things that I’ve struggled with is I wasn’t there in those couple of months where my parents literally were gutting our house down to the studs, and there was part of me that felt like I was missing out on being part of that recovery effort for my family, but also being there in New Orleans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His parents later rejoined him in the Bay, and he participated in the relief efforts while attending James Madison University in Virginia, where he and his peers \u003ca href=\"https://www.jmu.edu/news/2015/11/20-katrina-mm-oct15.shtml\">routinely traveled into Katrina-ravaged areas\u003c/a> to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smolkin now lives in Half Moon Bay, where he volunteers with \u003ca href=\"https://coastsidehope.org/\">Coastside Hope\u003c/a>, helping people with food insecurity, immigration and other needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to wait until there is something truly bad that happens to jump in, but rather recognizing there are these ongoing, omnipresent needs in the community. We should all be reaching out and helping in our communities in some way,” he said. “That’s part of what really stuck with me from Katrina, that there’s so much value in having strongly built safety nets and coordinated programs to support people when they’re truly in need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054190\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054190\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250827-KATRINABAYEVACUEES-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mementos from New Orleans sit on a shelf in Dan Smolkin’s home in Half Moon Bay on Aug. 27, 2025. He and his family evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and resettled in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At home, Smolkin and his wife have a room ready for their first child, a boy due in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hopes Louisiana will remain a part of his son’s life, starting with the family’s annual crawfish boil at his uncle’s home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, New Orleans isn’t just a place, but it’s an identity, and something that I hope to be able to impart on my kid,” Smolkin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "This Bill Would Extend Renter Protections to Homes Rebuilt After a Disaster. Some Say It Falls Short",
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"headTitle": "This Bill Would Extend Renter Protections to Homes Rebuilt After a Disaster. Some Say It Falls Short | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>More than six months after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026682/how-we-rebuild-la-recovers-from-wildfire\">Eaton and Palisades wildfires\u003c/a> razed nearly 13,000 homes and apartments near Los Angeles, property owners are beginning the arduous process of rebuilding. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047275/6-months-after-januarys-fires-recovery-is-just-beginning-for-many\">As they do\u003c/a>, state Senator Aisha Wahab wants to make sure renters aren’t left out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the January fires swept in, tenants in many of the apartment buildings had certain protections, including rent control and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12005034/this-bay-area-county-approved-sweeping-protections-for-disaster-affected-tenants\">limitations\u003c/a> on when a landlord could evict them. But, under existing law, the apartments will lose those protections once rebuilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state legislature is not doing enough to focus on the issues that renters face,” the Fremont Democrat said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wahab’s bill, SB 522, aims to close a loophole in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034212/california-lawmakers-push-lower-rent-cap-expand-protections-property-owners-worried\">Tenant Protection Act\u003c/a> of 2019, which expires in 2030. The law limits annual rent increases and restricts evictions to only “just-cause” cases, including not paying the rent, violating the lease or withdrawing the unit from the rental market. The law applies on a rolling basis to most multifamily properties built more than 15 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 522 would extend those protections to homes destroyed in a wildfire, flood or other natural disaster, rather than waiting another 15 years for the clock to restart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the proposed legislation has been contentious since it was introduced — condemned by rental property owners for going too far and criticized by tenants for not going far enough. The bill is expected to head to the Assembly floor in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Buildings are destroyed along Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena, California, after the Eaton Fire swept through the area northeast of Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Property owner interest groups say it sends “the wrong message to a landlord.” Debra Carlton, executive vice president for state government affairs at the California Apartment Association, said any regulation on new development could deter a property owner from entering or returning to the rental market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“State law says that, even in a new construction, you have a 15-year exemption before you fall under regulations such as just cause,” Carlton said. “So this is treating [the rebuilt units] differently, as if they’re not new.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wahab argued there is no concrete evidence that protections in her bill deter developers from rebuilding homes. Researchers from the University of Minnesota \u003ca href=\"https://www.cura.umn.edu/sites/cura.umn.edu/files/2025-03/final_the-good-case-for-_good-cause-v2.pdf\">published a study in March\u003c/a> that examined permitting activity before and after California’s Tenant Protection Act passed into law, among similar state policies in Oregon and New Hampshire. It found that permits for new construction in counties across those states did not decline, controlling for counties in neighboring states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But SB 522 is still shaking off the controversy it brought when it was first introduced.[aside postID=news_12034212 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1020x680.jpg']Wahab’s bill previously included language that required rent-controlled units to remain that way, even after getting rebuilt. That version received strong criticism from various apartment associations, realtor groups and building trades, which argued the bill, if passed into law, would make rebuilding too expensive for rental property owners already reeling from losing their homes and dealing with insurance claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Financing of replacement properties becomes extremely difficult if property owners do not have the ability to recover rebuilding costs through market-rate rents,” Dan Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, wrote in an email to KQED. “Property owners will struggle to secure financing, delaying or preventing reconstruction altogether because rental income and cost recovery will be severely limited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Wahab’s staff, those terms were removed before the bill’s first hearing in April, despite the language still remaining in legislative digests because of a technical error to be corrected in the coming weeks. But Wahab admitted that by omitting rent control from her bill, it made it more politically palatable, especially for her colleagues in the legislature who are landlords themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was largely a way to thread the needle and to provide stability for evictions — for unnecessary evictions when somebody has already faced a crisis of losing their entire home in a fire,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022580\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12022580\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/AP25016124878838-scaled-e1737665727227.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents embrace in front of a fire-ravaged property after the Palisades Fire swept through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Etienne Laurent/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tenants’ rights groups still largely support the bill — arguing that some protections are better than none — but they’re disappointed it’s now been watered down. Alfred Twu, secretary for the California Democratic Renters Council, said, “SB 522 is weaker without the rent cap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ideally, said Joey Flegel-Mishlove with East Bay Housing Organizations, just cause eviction protections should be coupled with other policies that support renters, such as rent caps and anti-harassment protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The affordable housing advocacy group endorsed SB 522 when it was first introduced. “Rent stabilization is undermined when landlords can evict tenants without cause and set rents for new tenants at an uncontrolled level. Just Cause protections are undermined when landlords can carry out de facto evictions by raising rents to levels tenants cannot afford, forcing them to move out.”[aside postID=news_11934624 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/GettyImages-1244095544-1020x619.jpg']Still, any renter protections that keep people housed, especially after a natural disaster, can provide relief to tenants, he added, “even if we aim to do more in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Geduldig benefited from similar protections when she lost her apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District to a fire in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 8:30 a.m., she said she heard a crackling sound. She went to her window and saw a little fire in the brush next door. Geduldig and 14 neighbors exited the building, figuring the fire would be put out shortly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We thought we were just going to be displaced for a year,” she said. Instead, it took more than three years to complete reconstruction on the severely damaged building. By then, she said, “There were five of us, I believe, who moved back in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was able to return because her landlord was required to keep it rent-controlled, even after it was rebuilt. Though Geduldig would not have been covered under SB 522, even if it had been in place then, she said the bill would be more effective if it included rent control. If she had to return to her old apartment at a new, market-rate price, she wouldn’t have been able to afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wouldn’t have been able to move back into the building, and I likely wouldn’t have been able to live in San Francisco,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than six months after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026682/how-we-rebuild-la-recovers-from-wildfire\">Eaton and Palisades wildfires\u003c/a> razed nearly 13,000 homes and apartments near Los Angeles, property owners are beginning the arduous process of rebuilding. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047275/6-months-after-januarys-fires-recovery-is-just-beginning-for-many\">As they do\u003c/a>, state Senator Aisha Wahab wants to make sure renters aren’t left out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the January fires swept in, tenants in many of the apartment buildings had certain protections, including rent control and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12005034/this-bay-area-county-approved-sweeping-protections-for-disaster-affected-tenants\">limitations\u003c/a> on when a landlord could evict them. But, under existing law, the apartments will lose those protections once rebuilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state legislature is not doing enough to focus on the issues that renters face,” the Fremont Democrat said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wahab’s bill, SB 522, aims to close a loophole in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034212/california-lawmakers-push-lower-rent-cap-expand-protections-property-owners-worried\">Tenant Protection Act\u003c/a> of 2019, which expires in 2030. The law limits annual rent increases and restricts evictions to only “just-cause” cases, including not paying the rent, violating the lease or withdrawing the unit from the rental market. The law applies on a rolling basis to most multifamily properties built more than 15 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 522 would extend those protections to homes destroyed in a wildfire, flood or other natural disaster, rather than waiting another 15 years for the clock to restart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the proposed legislation has been contentious since it was introduced — condemned by rental property owners for going too far and criticized by tenants for not going far enough. The bill is expected to head to the Assembly floor in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-043-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Buildings are destroyed along Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena, California, after the Eaton Fire swept through the area northeast of Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Property owner interest groups say it sends “the wrong message to a landlord.” Debra Carlton, executive vice president for state government affairs at the California Apartment Association, said any regulation on new development could deter a property owner from entering or returning to the rental market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“State law says that, even in a new construction, you have a 15-year exemption before you fall under regulations such as just cause,” Carlton said. “So this is treating [the rebuilt units] differently, as if they’re not new.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wahab argued there is no concrete evidence that protections in her bill deter developers from rebuilding homes. Researchers from the University of Minnesota \u003ca href=\"https://www.cura.umn.edu/sites/cura.umn.edu/files/2025-03/final_the-good-case-for-_good-cause-v2.pdf\">published a study in March\u003c/a> that examined permitting activity before and after California’s Tenant Protection Act passed into law, among similar state policies in Oregon and New Hampshire. It found that permits for new construction in counties across those states did not decline, controlling for counties in neighboring states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But SB 522 is still shaking off the controversy it brought when it was first introduced.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Wahab’s bill previously included language that required rent-controlled units to remain that way, even after getting rebuilt. That version received strong criticism from various apartment associations, realtor groups and building trades, which argued the bill, if passed into law, would make rebuilding too expensive for rental property owners already reeling from losing their homes and dealing with insurance claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Financing of replacement properties becomes extremely difficult if property owners do not have the ability to recover rebuilding costs through market-rate rents,” Dan Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, wrote in an email to KQED. “Property owners will struggle to secure financing, delaying or preventing reconstruction altogether because rental income and cost recovery will be severely limited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Wahab’s staff, those terms were removed before the bill’s first hearing in April, despite the language still remaining in legislative digests because of a technical error to be corrected in the coming weeks. But Wahab admitted that by omitting rent control from her bill, it made it more politically palatable, especially for her colleagues in the legislature who are landlords themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was largely a way to thread the needle and to provide stability for evictions — for unnecessary evictions when somebody has already faced a crisis of losing their entire home in a fire,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022580\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12022580\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/AP25016124878838-scaled-e1737665727227.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents embrace in front of a fire-ravaged property after the Palisades Fire swept through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Etienne Laurent/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tenants’ rights groups still largely support the bill — arguing that some protections are better than none — but they’re disappointed it’s now been watered down. Alfred Twu, secretary for the California Democratic Renters Council, said, “SB 522 is weaker without the rent cap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ideally, said Joey Flegel-Mishlove with East Bay Housing Organizations, just cause eviction protections should be coupled with other policies that support renters, such as rent caps and anti-harassment protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The affordable housing advocacy group endorsed SB 522 when it was first introduced. “Rent stabilization is undermined when landlords can evict tenants without cause and set rents for new tenants at an uncontrolled level. Just Cause protections are undermined when landlords can carry out de facto evictions by raising rents to levels tenants cannot afford, forcing them to move out.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Still, any renter protections that keep people housed, especially after a natural disaster, can provide relief to tenants, he added, “even if we aim to do more in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Geduldig benefited from similar protections when she lost her apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District to a fire in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 8:30 a.m., she said she heard a crackling sound. She went to her window and saw a little fire in the brush next door. Geduldig and 14 neighbors exited the building, figuring the fire would be put out shortly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We thought we were just going to be displaced for a year,” she said. Instead, it took more than three years to complete reconstruction on the severely damaged building. By then, she said, “There were five of us, I believe, who moved back in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was able to return because her landlord was required to keep it rent-controlled, even after it was rebuilt. Though Geduldig would not have been covered under SB 522, even if it had been in place then, she said the bill would be more effective if it included rent control. If she had to return to her old apartment at a new, market-rate price, she wouldn’t have been able to afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wouldn’t have been able to move back into the building, and I likely wouldn’t have been able to live in San Francisco,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "as-flood-risk-grows-suisun-city-weighs-annexing-california-forever-land",
"title": "As Flood Risk Grows, Suisun City Weighs Annexing California Forever Land",
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"headTitle": "As Flood Risk Grows, Suisun City Weighs Annexing California Forever Land | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Becky Carroll’s earthy yellow ranch-style home faces a vast marshland filled with migratory birds and boaters. She lives in a quaint, waterside neighborhood on the edge of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043295/suisun-city-proposes-annexing-most-of-california-forevers-new-city\">Suisun City\u003c/a>, where streets have names like Dolphin Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Carroll lives right on the water, she isn’t worried that her property will flood. It hasn’t in the nearly 20 years since she and her husband moved in. And, she has faith in the marsh’s natural ability to soak up the water like a sponge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel very safe,” Carroll said. “We have our boat right outside our back door, so it’s perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this neighborhood, and a large swath of the marshy city, is located in what climate scientists call one of the Bay Area’s top \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenbelt.org/hotspots/suisun-city/\">sea level rise hot spots\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suisun City, a working-class community on the edge of San Francisco Bay, faces a slow-moving crisis: rising seas could swallow parts of the town within decades. It also faces an imminent budget crisis threatening insolvency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052352\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052352\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Becky Carroll looks out at the Suisun Slough from her deck in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among other solutions, city leaders are eyeing a controversial fix — annexing thousands of inland acres from California Forever, a tech billionaire-backed company — a move that could raise tax revenue and secure higher ground, but risks fierce fights over growth, climate adaptation and the city’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, city officials have debated how to prepare for climate change. Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez, who grew up in a tan apartment blocks away from the waterfront, said that point hit home a few years back, when she hiked up a hill nearby and saw how the marsh — the \u003ca href=\"https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/suisun-marsh#:~:text=Suisun%20Marsh%20is%20where%20fresh,of%20plants%2C%20fish%20and%20wildlife\">largest brackish wetland\u003c/a> in California — seemed to dwarf her tiny city of about 30,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My city will be affected by flooding, and no one really knows about it,” Hernandez said.[aside postID=news_12043295 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250513-CaliforniaForeverAnnexExplainer-38-BL_qed.jpg']City Hall and restaurants like Bab’s Delta Diner are right on the water. Hernandez is worried that the area — considered the city’s playground — could be inundated in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wonders whether the annexation deal with California Forever could help solve both the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12044266/suisun-city-could-grow-by-9-times-its-current-size\">budget deficit threatening the city’s stability\u003c/a> and climate-induced flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company, which did not respond to KQED’s request for comment, is proposing to build a mega-development with tens of thousands of homes several miles inland. Unlike Suisun City, the land where California Forever wants to build does not face risks from rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we didn’t have the annexation opportunity, we would know that we would be a shrinking city over time,” Hernandez said. “And we would have nowhere else to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Annexation of California Forever’s land could present at least two sea level rise solutions: tax revenue from future residents could help pay for potentially expensive adaptation efforts, or the project could provide housing for displaced residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052433\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052433\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/SUISUN-SEALEVEL-RISE-KQED.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1240\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue indicates inundation. Models used in the state’s latest sea level rise guidance show a range of flooding scenarios. \u003ccite>(Animation by Darren Tu/KQED. Data from Our Coast, Our Future, USGS and Pacific Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But climate experts argue that annexation isn’t a guaranteed fix for the city’s climate issues. Mark Lubell, a professor of environmental science and policy at UC Davis, said that while the opportunity sounds “juicy,” the development might cost too much, it may not set aside homes for displaced residents and the city might not choose to spend the tax revenue on protecting flood-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think there’s any way in which you could ever consider California Forever as a solution to Suisun City’s climate risk, either in terms of revenue generation or as a place that could be an escape hatch for climate migration,” Lubell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, California Forever released a \u003ca href=\"https://www.thereporter.com/2024/07/19/solano-releases-california-forever-report/\">report\u003c/a>, claiming its project would generate billions of dollars in revenue for the county. Days later, county staff released their \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/SolanoCountyReport.pdf\">own study\u003c/a>, which showed the project would cost more than it would generate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Suisun City is a sea level rise hot spot\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Suisun City has a long history of flooding dating back to \u003ca href=\"https://www.solanoarticles.com/history/index.php/weblog3/more/floods_of_1880s_washed_over_solano/#:~:text=On%20that%20note%2C%20the%20storm,quite%20a%20few%20winter%20battles\">the 1800s\u003c/a>. During winter months, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018103/king-tides-foreshadow-far-wetter-future-sf-shoreline\">king tides\u003c/a> — caused by a stronger-than-normal gravitational pull when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1955598/king-tides-are-here-why-they-happen-and-what-they-teach-us\">sun, moon and Earth align\u003c/a> — can cause the marsh to spill into the city, flooding sidewalks and roadways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those stronger tides foreshadow a far wetter future as human-caused climate change drives sea level rise. Since the 1880s, oceans have risen globally by about \u003ca href=\"https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level\">eight inches\u003c/a> on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Alma Hernandez walks along a path used for Flood Walks near the Suisun Slough in Suisun City on Aug. 4, 2025. The guided walks educate residents about local flood risks, climate resilience and the city’s natural waterways. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State regulators have mandated that every coastal city and county develop \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984830/california-mandates-coastal-cities-plan-for-future-sea-level-rise\">vulnerability assessments\u003c/a> of what’s at risk and lay out potential solutions, telling places like Suisun City to expect nearly a foot of sea level rise by 2050, in a “\u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/California-Sea-Level-Rise-Guidance-2024-508.pdf\">most likely\u003c/a>” scenario, and up to 6.6 feet in a worst-case scenario by the end of the century. Coastal communities also have to contend with storm surges and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997954/lawmakers-push-to-map-groundwater-before-it-swamps-americas-infrastructure\">shallow groundwater rise\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaclyn Perrin-Martinez, climate adaptation planning manager with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, said the state agency’s maps show that with two feet of sea level rise, there will be “significant overtopping” and flooding in Suisun City, which could happen by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would put much of the area south of Highway 12 under water, flooding a middle school, City Hall, downtown businesses and a rail line, impacting “some of the most vulnerable members of the community,” Hernandez said.[aside postID=science_1996746 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/RS48091_GettyImages-507138914-qut-1020x686.jpg']Local leaders have begun to plan for sea level rise. They’re working on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fairfieldsuisunsewer.ca.gov/public-outreach/solano-bayshore-resiliency-roundtable/#1685576399759-dd121c72-a336\">regional adaptation plan\u003c/a> with potential solutions from Vallejo to Suisun City. The Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District leads it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, king tides push brackish water into a sewage treatment plant, minorly disrupting its operations. “The problems that we begin to see at king tides would be likely more frequent and likely more severe,” said Jordan Damerel, the local agency’s general manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Damerel said the group could complete the assessment as soon as next year, and a list of potential solutions could come in 2027. Even with Suisun City’s marshland absorbing water, rising seas could someday drown large parts of the wetland and flow into the city. Local leaders said solutions could range from sea walls to levees to pumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Damerel wants an “everyone wins scenario” where communities, businesses and sewer infrastructure are safe from floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that plan is separate from discussions around annexation. Officials from the sewer district said the vulnerability assessment would only consider Suisun City’s existing boundaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The complicated process of moving inland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even in public discussions around the potential annexation, Suisun City officials rarely talk about flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a \u003ca href=\"https://media.avcaptureall.cloud/meeting/b98f7eea-cb47-42be-a06b-f85281aa6d5a\">public meeting\u003c/a> in January, City Manager Bret Prebula, wearing a bright blue suit, briefly mentioned sea level rise in his plan to fix budget issues. He argued annexation could help the city become an attractive candidate for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052353\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052353\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of the Suisun Slough in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If we do not create an area in both downtown and expansion that is worth saving, it is going to be a difficult conversation years down the line with the federal government,” Prebula said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He then pointed to an even bleaker possibility: adaptation efforts might not work, and the city may not be able to stop flooding, meaning some residents and businesses may have to relocate inward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lubell, the UC Davis researcher, said that in the future, there may “have to be some retreat there given the extent of the flooding.”[aside postID=science_1984643 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1305-qut-1020x678.jpg']The strategy, called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984643/reluctant-retreat-one-familys-fight-against-climate-induced-flooding\">managed retreat\u003c/a>,” is often regarded as a last resort for cities imminently facing sea level rise. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1945874/when-it-comes-to-wildfire-solutions-relocating-communities-is-a-tough-sell\">complicated process\u003c/a> involves residents leaving their homes, often receiving government compensation for their property and moving to higher ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Charisma Acey, an associate professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley, is not opposed to the strategy, she said it is often politically charged and can be “a dirty word,” especially in a country with strong property rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If people don’t see the water rising right now, they’re thinking the government is just trying to take land below fair market value,” Acey said. “And take their communities away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acey added, when communities discuss how to adapt to climate change, often the most vulnerable residents are left out because participation requires time and effort, a scarce resource for people working multiple jobs or commuting long distances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If managed retreat is seriously considered, Acey said city officials will have to regard solutions equitably, for homeowners and renters alike. According to data from the \u003ca href=\"https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y2023.S1101?q=Suisun+City+city,+California&t=Housing\">2023 American Community Survey\u003c/a>, nearly 40% of Suisun City residents rent their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We absolutely need to look for higher ground’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Involving California Forever in talks about solutions could further complicate the debate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez admitted that sea level rise had not been a central issue in discussions with the company because the city’s budget crisis is “taking priority,” and the threat of insolvency is more immediate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she added, while she has the company’s attention, it’s time to address the risk of flooding as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Alma Hernandez sits in her office at Suisun City Hall in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many residents and advocacy groups, however, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996536/farmers-are-divided-over-california-forevers-plan-in-solano-county\">do not trust\u003c/a> California Forever to work in their best interests, partly because of its rocky history of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/land-purchases-solano-county.html\">quietly acquiring land\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970694/california-forever-lawsuit-looms-as-solano-county-farmers-fight-back\">suing farmers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985195/billionaire-backed-bid-for-new-solano-county-city-will-likely-be-on-the-ballot\">pushing\u003c/a> — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001435/california-forever-pulls-ballot-measure-to-build-new-city-in-solano-county-for-now\">and then pulling\u003c/a> — a ballot initiative last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents, including Carroll, still have questions about how the project would affect the county’s existing infrastructure and are concerned that newcomers would further crowd Highway 12, which Carroll said is already “a disaster” to drive on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she questions whether it would ever be necessary to leave her dockside home — even if seas rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even with a tsunami coming through,” Carroll doesn’t believe her property could flood because San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta would take the brunt of high water. It would then have to go through the marsh before reaching her backyard dock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nate Huntington, a resilience manager with the environmental advocacy group Greenbelt Alliance, said the way Suisun City chooses to adapt to sea level rise should center on what residents want for their future. His organization is part of the local community coalition, Solano Together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052356\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052356\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate Huntington, a member of the Solano Together coalition, sits in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It shouldn’t be a decision that’s dictated by a development group that doesn’t have the land zoned how they want it right now,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez argued that with annexation, the city actually holds the power. Earlier this summer, she and other officials signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043295/suisun-city-proposes-annexing-most-of-california-forevers-new-city\">an agreement\u003c/a> that allows them to exit negotiations, no strings attached. If the annexation deal is approved, she said Suisun City will have the ultimate say in what gets built, not the developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is eager to look for other solutions, but with annexation on the table, retreat could be worth exploring too — even if it’s a last resort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to hear the same individuals tell us that our downtown will be flooded in 50 years [and] also tell us, ‘But don’t look for higher ground,’” Hernandez said. “We absolutely need to look for higher ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Suisun City, one of the Bay Area’s fastest-rising sea level hot spots, is weighing whether to annex a massive inland parcel from the California Forever project to boost its tax base — and potentially protect residents from climate change.",
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"title": "As Flood Risk Grows, Suisun City Weighs Annexing California Forever Land | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Becky Carroll’s earthy yellow ranch-style home faces a vast marshland filled with migratory birds and boaters. She lives in a quaint, waterside neighborhood on the edge of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043295/suisun-city-proposes-annexing-most-of-california-forevers-new-city\">Suisun City\u003c/a>, where streets have names like Dolphin Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Carroll lives right on the water, she isn’t worried that her property will flood. It hasn’t in the nearly 20 years since she and her husband moved in. And, she has faith in the marsh’s natural ability to soak up the water like a sponge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel very safe,” Carroll said. “We have our boat right outside our back door, so it’s perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this neighborhood, and a large swath of the marshy city, is located in what climate scientists call one of the Bay Area’s top \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenbelt.org/hotspots/suisun-city/\">sea level rise hot spots\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suisun City, a working-class community on the edge of San Francisco Bay, faces a slow-moving crisis: rising seas could swallow parts of the town within decades. It also faces an imminent budget crisis threatening insolvency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052352\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052352\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-38-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Becky Carroll looks out at the Suisun Slough from her deck in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Among other solutions, city leaders are eyeing a controversial fix — annexing thousands of inland acres from California Forever, a tech billionaire-backed company — a move that could raise tax revenue and secure higher ground, but risks fierce fights over growth, climate adaptation and the city’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, city officials have debated how to prepare for climate change. Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez, who grew up in a tan apartment blocks away from the waterfront, said that point hit home a few years back, when she hiked up a hill nearby and saw how the marsh — the \u003ca href=\"https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/suisun-marsh#:~:text=Suisun%20Marsh%20is%20where%20fresh,of%20plants%2C%20fish%20and%20wildlife\">largest brackish wetland\u003c/a> in California — seemed to dwarf her tiny city of about 30,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My city will be affected by flooding, and no one really knows about it,” Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>City Hall and restaurants like Bab’s Delta Diner are right on the water. Hernandez is worried that the area — considered the city’s playground — could be inundated in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wonders whether the annexation deal with California Forever could help solve both the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12044266/suisun-city-could-grow-by-9-times-its-current-size\">budget deficit threatening the city’s stability\u003c/a> and climate-induced flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company, which did not respond to KQED’s request for comment, is proposing to build a mega-development with tens of thousands of homes several miles inland. Unlike Suisun City, the land where California Forever wants to build does not face risks from rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we didn’t have the annexation opportunity, we would know that we would be a shrinking city over time,” Hernandez said. “And we would have nowhere else to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Annexation of California Forever’s land could present at least two sea level rise solutions: tax revenue from future residents could help pay for potentially expensive adaptation efforts, or the project could provide housing for displaced residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052433\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052433\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/SUISUN-SEALEVEL-RISE-KQED.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1240\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue indicates inundation. Models used in the state’s latest sea level rise guidance show a range of flooding scenarios. \u003ccite>(Animation by Darren Tu/KQED. Data from Our Coast, Our Future, USGS and Pacific Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But climate experts argue that annexation isn’t a guaranteed fix for the city’s climate issues. Mark Lubell, a professor of environmental science and policy at UC Davis, said that while the opportunity sounds “juicy,” the development might cost too much, it may not set aside homes for displaced residents and the city might not choose to spend the tax revenue on protecting flood-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think there’s any way in which you could ever consider California Forever as a solution to Suisun City’s climate risk, either in terms of revenue generation or as a place that could be an escape hatch for climate migration,” Lubell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, California Forever released a \u003ca href=\"https://www.thereporter.com/2024/07/19/solano-releases-california-forever-report/\">report\u003c/a>, claiming its project would generate billions of dollars in revenue for the county. Days later, county staff released their \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/SolanoCountyReport.pdf\">own study\u003c/a>, which showed the project would cost more than it would generate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Suisun City is a sea level rise hot spot\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Suisun City has a long history of flooding dating back to \u003ca href=\"https://www.solanoarticles.com/history/index.php/weblog3/more/floods_of_1880s_washed_over_solano/#:~:text=On%20that%20note%2C%20the%20storm,quite%20a%20few%20winter%20battles\">the 1800s\u003c/a>. During winter months, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12018103/king-tides-foreshadow-far-wetter-future-sf-shoreline\">king tides\u003c/a> — caused by a stronger-than-normal gravitational pull when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1955598/king-tides-are-here-why-they-happen-and-what-they-teach-us\">sun, moon and Earth align\u003c/a> — can cause the marsh to spill into the city, flooding sidewalks and roadways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those stronger tides foreshadow a far wetter future as human-caused climate change drives sea level rise. Since the 1880s, oceans have risen globally by about \u003ca href=\"https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level\">eight inches\u003c/a> on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-21-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Alma Hernandez walks along a path used for Flood Walks near the Suisun Slough in Suisun City on Aug. 4, 2025. The guided walks educate residents about local flood risks, climate resilience and the city’s natural waterways. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State regulators have mandated that every coastal city and county develop \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984830/california-mandates-coastal-cities-plan-for-future-sea-level-rise\">vulnerability assessments\u003c/a> of what’s at risk and lay out potential solutions, telling places like Suisun City to expect nearly a foot of sea level rise by 2050, in a “\u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/California-Sea-Level-Rise-Guidance-2024-508.pdf\">most likely\u003c/a>” scenario, and up to 6.6 feet in a worst-case scenario by the end of the century. Coastal communities also have to contend with storm surges and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997954/lawmakers-push-to-map-groundwater-before-it-swamps-americas-infrastructure\">shallow groundwater rise\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jaclyn Perrin-Martinez, climate adaptation planning manager with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, said the state agency’s maps show that with two feet of sea level rise, there will be “significant overtopping” and flooding in Suisun City, which could happen by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would put much of the area south of Highway 12 under water, flooding a middle school, City Hall, downtown businesses and a rail line, impacting “some of the most vulnerable members of the community,” Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Local leaders have begun to plan for sea level rise. They’re working on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fairfieldsuisunsewer.ca.gov/public-outreach/solano-bayshore-resiliency-roundtable/#1685576399759-dd121c72-a336\">regional adaptation plan\u003c/a> with potential solutions from Vallejo to Suisun City. The Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District leads it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, king tides push brackish water into a sewage treatment plant, minorly disrupting its operations. “The problems that we begin to see at king tides would be likely more frequent and likely more severe,” said Jordan Damerel, the local agency’s general manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Damerel said the group could complete the assessment as soon as next year, and a list of potential solutions could come in 2027. Even with Suisun City’s marshland absorbing water, rising seas could someday drown large parts of the wetland and flow into the city. Local leaders said solutions could range from sea walls to levees to pumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Damerel wants an “everyone wins scenario” where communities, businesses and sewer infrastructure are safe from floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that plan is separate from discussions around annexation. Officials from the sewer district said the vulnerability assessment would only consider Suisun City’s existing boundaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The complicated process of moving inland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even in public discussions around the potential annexation, Suisun City officials rarely talk about flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a \u003ca href=\"https://media.avcaptureall.cloud/meeting/b98f7eea-cb47-42be-a06b-f85281aa6d5a\">public meeting\u003c/a> in January, City Manager Bret Prebula, wearing a bright blue suit, briefly mentioned sea level rise in his plan to fix budget issues. He argued annexation could help the city become an attractive candidate for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052353\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052353\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-44-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of the Suisun Slough in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If we do not create an area in both downtown and expansion that is worth saving, it is going to be a difficult conversation years down the line with the federal government,” Prebula said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He then pointed to an even bleaker possibility: adaptation efforts might not work, and the city may not be able to stop flooding, meaning some residents and businesses may have to relocate inward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lubell, the UC Davis researcher, said that in the future, there may “have to be some retreat there given the extent of the flooding.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The strategy, called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984643/reluctant-retreat-one-familys-fight-against-climate-induced-flooding\">managed retreat\u003c/a>,” is often regarded as a last resort for cities imminently facing sea level rise. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1945874/when-it-comes-to-wildfire-solutions-relocating-communities-is-a-tough-sell\">complicated process\u003c/a> involves residents leaving their homes, often receiving government compensation for their property and moving to higher ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Charisma Acey, an associate professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley, is not opposed to the strategy, she said it is often politically charged and can be “a dirty word,” especially in a country with strong property rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If people don’t see the water rising right now, they’re thinking the government is just trying to take land below fair market value,” Acey said. “And take their communities away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acey added, when communities discuss how to adapt to climate change, often the most vulnerable residents are left out because participation requires time and effort, a scarce resource for people working multiple jobs or commuting long distances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If managed retreat is seriously considered, Acey said city officials will have to regard solutions equitably, for homeowners and renters alike. According to data from the \u003ca href=\"https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y2023.S1101?q=Suisun+City+city,+California&t=Housing\">2023 American Community Survey\u003c/a>, nearly 40% of Suisun City residents rent their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We absolutely need to look for higher ground’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Involving California Forever in talks about solutions could further complicate the debate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez admitted that sea level rise had not been a central issue in discussions with the company because the city’s budget crisis is “taking priority,” and the threat of insolvency is more immediate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she added, while she has the company’s attention, it’s time to address the risk of flooding as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-13-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Alma Hernandez sits in her office at Suisun City Hall in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many residents and advocacy groups, however, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996536/farmers-are-divided-over-california-forevers-plan-in-solano-county\">do not trust\u003c/a> California Forever to work in their best interests, partly because of its rocky history of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/land-purchases-solano-county.html\">quietly acquiring land\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970694/california-forever-lawsuit-looms-as-solano-county-farmers-fight-back\">suing farmers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985195/billionaire-backed-bid-for-new-solano-county-city-will-likely-be-on-the-ballot\">pushing\u003c/a> — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001435/california-forever-pulls-ballot-measure-to-build-new-city-in-solano-county-for-now\">and then pulling\u003c/a> — a ballot initiative last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents, including Carroll, still have questions about how the project would affect the county’s existing infrastructure and are concerned that newcomers would further crowd Highway 12, which Carroll said is already “a disaster” to drive on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she questions whether it would ever be necessary to leave her dockside home — even if seas rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even with a tsunami coming through,” Carroll doesn’t believe her property could flood because San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta would take the brunt of high water. It would then have to go through the marsh before reaching her backyard dock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nate Huntington, a resilience manager with the environmental advocacy group Greenbelt Alliance, said the way Suisun City chooses to adapt to sea level rise should center on what residents want for their future. His organization is part of the local community coalition, Solano Together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052356\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052356\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250804-CALIFORNIAFOREVERSUISUNCITY-58-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate Huntington, a member of the Solano Together coalition, sits in Suisun City, Solano County, on Aug. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It shouldn’t be a decision that’s dictated by a development group that doesn’t have the land zoned how they want it right now,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez argued that with annexation, the city actually holds the power. Earlier this summer, she and other officials signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043295/suisun-city-proposes-annexing-most-of-california-forevers-new-city\">an agreement\u003c/a> that allows them to exit negotiations, no strings attached. If the annexation deal is approved, she said Suisun City will have the ultimate say in what gets built, not the developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is eager to look for other solutions, but with annexation on the table, retreat could be worth exploring too — even if it’s a last resort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to hear the same individuals tell us that our downtown will be flooded in 50 years [and] also tell us, ‘But don’t look for higher ground,’” Hernandez said. “We absolutely need to look for higher ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The deaths of at least 27 children and staff at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas have some parents and guardians questioning the safety of summer camps, especially as global warming increases risks of extreme weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of summer camp’s allure is that children are outside in nature. But that can also raise the possibility of heat illness and risks from greater proximity to wildfire or flood-prone areas, says Tracey Gaslin, chief executive of the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://allianceforcamphealth.org/\">\u003cu>Alliance for Camp Health\u003c/u>\u003c/a> in Kentucky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside of regulations that apply to all businesses, there are no federal standards that are specific to camps, says Henry DeHart, interim chief executive of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acacamps.org/\">\u003cu>American Camp Association\u003c/u>\u003c/a> (ACA). The ACA has a national accreditation program that includes some health and safety standards, but it’s voluntary and only about 12% of the country’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.acacamps.org/resources/national-economic-impact-study-camp-industry\">\u003cu>roughly 20,000\u003c/u>\u003c/a> camps have participated, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the state level, DeHart says some state agencies conduct camp health and safety inspections. But oversight and protections vary considerably from state to state, and some states have very little regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a lot of states that have very little or no regulation related to camp,” DeHart says. “The regulatory framework is wide and varied and, in some places, it’s not very robust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the gaps in the current regulatory framework, some experts on climate-related risks say parents and guardians should ask more detailed questions about campers’ safety. Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.floods.org/about/staff/\">\u003cu>Association of State Floodplain Managers\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, dropped off his 8-year-old daughter at Girl Scout Camp earlier this month, and realized he, too, had many more questions about his daughter’s camp’s flood precautions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even as a floodplain manager,” he says, “I don’t think I even had appreciation for what, as a parent, I should be thinking about when sending kids to camp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Berginnis has a list of points to cover. For parents or guardians sending children to any kind of camp, here are the top questions experts say you should be asking about increased risks of heat, wildfires and floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048822\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048822\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1350\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camps can be great for kids, but can also expose them to heat. Children and teenagers’ developing bodies aren’t as good at regulating their body temperatures as adult bodies. \u003ccite>(Serhii Bezrukyi/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2 class=\"edTag\">\u003cstrong>What is the camp doing to reduce risk of heat-related illness and death?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This question is important because heat-related illness and death are major and growing risks in the U.S. — and that threat is often underestimated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12045055 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-1450590312-2000x1334.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, children and teenagers’ developing bodies aren’t as good at regulating their body temperatures as adult bodies, says Rupa Basu, senior science advisor for the University of California, San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://climatehealth.ucsf.edu/\">\u003cu>Center for Climate Health and Equity\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. That makes them more at risk for heat illness, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that people don’t even think of children often as being high risk populations,” Basu says. “ But they absolutely are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For these reasons, Gaslin at the Alliance for Camp Health thinks parents and guardians should be asking camps how they are thinking about heat and hydration. She suggests parents and guardians ask about how the camp’s physical site is designed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do you have things like shade structures? Misting systems?” Gaslin says. “A really solid infrastructure build is important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaslin also thinks parents and guardians should be asking about how “climate-aware” the campers’ schedules are. That can look like an activity in a cool location, then an activity outside in a warmer location, then back into the cool, she says. Also it’s important to ask about how frequently counselors are reminding campers to hydrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really about giving conscious thought to how do we manage that impact of heat,” she says. “If we’re gonna be outdoors, guess what? Water activities are a great thing to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048823\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048823\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1201\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, thinks parents and guardians need to know if their kids’ camp is in a floodplain, and what the camp is doing about it. \u003ccite>(Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is the camp doing to reduce risks from flooding?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This question is key because many camps are located in flood-prone areas, Berginnis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says — in many ways — that’s understandable. “To me, it makes logical sense that you’d have a lot of camps there because it has really interesting habitats. It has interesting animals and geology and everything, and kids can learn a lot there,” Berginnis says.[aside postID=news_11834305 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS44514_GettyImages-1261921915-qut.jpg']But he thinks parents and guardians need to know if their kids’ camp is in a floodplain, and what the camp is doing about it. Berginnis says adults can look up risks on this \u003ca href=\"https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home\">\u003cu>FEMA website\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. Parents and guardians can also plug in \u003ca href=\"https://firststreet.org/\">\u003cu>addresses to this database from First Street\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, a climate risk modeling company. If it’s a sleep-away camp, Berginnis says it’s important to ask where the kids’ sleeping quarters are located.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s an overnight camp, any kind of residential lodging overnight for the kids, if it’s in a floodway, that should be a huge red flag right there,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he says parents and guardians should ask camps about things like flood sirens and specifics of emergency action plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would be very blunt with a campground: I wanna know the procedure. If a flash flood warning is declared for the area, what does the camp do? What do the counselors do? So that they can talk it through with you,” he says in an email. “Do not be satisfied with a generic answer like ‘we have an emergency action plan’. Ask them about specific actions like is there anyone monitoring the weather at night? What are the designated evacuation areas? And if they cannot talk that through with you, again, I would say, that’s another red flag.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048824\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048824\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1213\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12-1536x1035.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracey Gaslin at the Alliance for Camp Health says parents and guardians should make sure that all camp emergency action plans are regularly updated and reviewed by local emergency partners, including emergency medical staff. \u003ccite>(Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is the camp doing to reduce risks of wildfires and wildfire smoke?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As with flood risks, parents and guardians should be asking about emergency action plans and preparedness for wildfire and smoke, Gaslin says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents can ask camps, do they monitor air quality?” she says, “What’s their evacuation plan? How are they gonna communicate with families? So families are gonna be able to say, in a moment of crisis, I wanna be able to communicate with you in some way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaslin says it’s important to make sure that all camp emergency action plans are regularly updated and reviewed by local emergency partners, including emergency medical staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaslin says parents and guardians should make sure there are always staff monitoring the weather, and at sleepaway camps there should be a solid communication system so at night, individuals are alerted to environmental changes or concerns. That means at least some staff with cell phones and radios at all hours, to monitor for wildfire risk, flash floods, or any other hazards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Part of summer camp's allure is that children are outside in nature. But that can also raise the possibility of heat illness and risks from greater proximity to wildfire or flood-prone areas. Here are some expert tips questions to ask your kids' camp.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The deaths of at least 27 children and staff at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas have some parents and guardians questioning the safety of summer camps, especially as global warming increases risks of extreme weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of summer camp’s allure is that children are outside in nature. But that can also raise the possibility of heat illness and risks from greater proximity to wildfire or flood-prone areas, says Tracey Gaslin, chief executive of the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://allianceforcamphealth.org/\">\u003cu>Alliance for Camp Health\u003c/u>\u003c/a> in Kentucky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside of regulations that apply to all businesses, there are no federal standards that are specific to camps, says Henry DeHart, interim chief executive of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acacamps.org/\">\u003cu>American Camp Association\u003c/u>\u003c/a> (ACA). The ACA has a national accreditation program that includes some health and safety standards, but it’s voluntary and only about 12% of the country’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.acacamps.org/resources/national-economic-impact-study-camp-industry\">\u003cu>roughly 20,000\u003c/u>\u003c/a> camps have participated, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the state level, DeHart says some state agencies conduct camp health and safety inspections. But oversight and protections vary considerably from state to state, and some states have very little regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a lot of states that have very little or no regulation related to camp,” DeHart says. “The regulatory framework is wide and varied and, in some places, it’s not very robust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the gaps in the current regulatory framework, some experts on climate-related risks say parents and guardians should ask more detailed questions about campers’ safety. Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.floods.org/about/staff/\">\u003cu>Association of State Floodplain Managers\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, dropped off his 8-year-old daughter at Girl Scout Camp earlier this month, and realized he, too, had many more questions about his daughter’s camp’s flood precautions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even as a floodplain manager,” he says, “I don’t think I even had appreciation for what, as a parent, I should be thinking about when sending kids to camp.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Berginnis has a list of points to cover. For parents or guardians sending children to any kind of camp, here are the top questions experts say you should be asking about increased risks of heat, wildfires and floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048822\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048822\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1350\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-10-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camps can be great for kids, but can also expose them to heat. Children and teenagers’ developing bodies aren’t as good at regulating their body temperatures as adult bodies. \u003ccite>(Serhii Bezrukyi/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2 class=\"edTag\">\u003cstrong>What is the camp doing to reduce risk of heat-related illness and death?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This question is important because heat-related illness and death are major and growing risks in the U.S. — and that threat is often underestimated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, children and teenagers’ developing bodies aren’t as good at regulating their body temperatures as adult bodies, says Rupa Basu, senior science advisor for the University of California, San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://climatehealth.ucsf.edu/\">\u003cu>Center for Climate Health and Equity\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. That makes them more at risk for heat illness, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that people don’t even think of children often as being high risk populations,” Basu says. “ But they absolutely are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For these reasons, Gaslin at the Alliance for Camp Health thinks parents and guardians should be asking camps how they are thinking about heat and hydration. She suggests parents and guardians ask about how the camp’s physical site is designed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do you have things like shade structures? Misting systems?” Gaslin says. “A really solid infrastructure build is important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaslin also thinks parents and guardians should be asking about how “climate-aware” the campers’ schedules are. That can look like an activity in a cool location, then an activity outside in a warmer location, then back into the cool, she says. Also it’s important to ask about how frequently counselors are reminding campers to hydrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really about giving conscious thought to how do we manage that impact of heat,” she says. “If we’re gonna be outdoors, guess what? Water activities are a great thing to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048823\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048823\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1201\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-11-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, thinks parents and guardians need to know if their kids’ camp is in a floodplain, and what the camp is doing about it. \u003ccite>(Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is the camp doing to reduce risks from flooding?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This question is key because many camps are located in flood-prone areas, Berginnis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says — in many ways — that’s understandable. “To me, it makes logical sense that you’d have a lot of camps there because it has really interesting habitats. It has interesting animals and geology and everything, and kids can learn a lot there,” Berginnis says.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But he thinks parents and guardians need to know if their kids’ camp is in a floodplain, and what the camp is doing about it. Berginnis says adults can look up risks on this \u003ca href=\"https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home\">\u003cu>FEMA website\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. Parents and guardians can also plug in \u003ca href=\"https://firststreet.org/\">\u003cu>addresses to this database from First Street\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, a climate risk modeling company. If it’s a sleep-away camp, Berginnis says it’s important to ask where the kids’ sleeping quarters are located.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s an overnight camp, any kind of residential lodging overnight for the kids, if it’s in a floodway, that should be a huge red flag right there,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he says parents and guardians should ask camps about things like flood sirens and specifics of emergency action plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would be very blunt with a campground: I wanna know the procedure. If a flash flood warning is declared for the area, what does the camp do? What do the counselors do? So that they can talk it through with you,” he says in an email. “Do not be satisfied with a generic answer like ‘we have an emergency action plan’. Ask them about specific actions like is there anyone monitoring the weather at night? What are the designated evacuation areas? And if they cannot talk that through with you, again, I would say, that’s another red flag.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048824\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048824\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1213\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-12-1536x1035.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracey Gaslin at the Alliance for Camp Health says parents and guardians should make sure that all camp emergency action plans are regularly updated and reviewed by local emergency partners, including emergency medical staff. \u003ccite>(Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is the camp doing to reduce risks of wildfires and wildfire smoke?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As with flood risks, parents and guardians should be asking about emergency action plans and preparedness for wildfire and smoke, Gaslin says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents can ask camps, do they monitor air quality?” she says, “What’s their evacuation plan? How are they gonna communicate with families? So families are gonna be able to say, in a moment of crisis, I wanna be able to communicate with you in some way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaslin says it’s important to make sure that all camp emergency action plans are regularly updated and reviewed by local emergency partners, including emergency medical staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaslin says parents and guardians should make sure there are always staff monitoring the weather, and at sleepaway camps there should be a solid communication system so at night, individuals are alerted to environmental changes or concerns. That means at least some staff with cell phones and radios at all hours, to monitor for wildfire risk, flash floods, or any other hazards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Floods Exposed Weaknesses in California Prisons’ Emergency Plans. They Still Aren’t Ready",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, amid record-breaking rain and snow, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/prisons/\">two prisons\u003c/a> in the southern San Joaquin Valley faced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-04-26/newsom-visits-flood-threatened-corcoran\">serious risk of flooding\u003c/a>. But neither prison, California State Prison, Corcoran or the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, had a robust evacuation plan on hand and ready for the looming disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the prisons developed a joint plan to transfer roughly 8,000 incarcerated people to other state prisons within 11 to 14 days — or longer. Wheelchair-bound individuals, the plan stated, would take six days to evacuate. And department buses intended to shuttle people to safety could take up to a day to arrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The floods that year ultimately did not reach the prisons, but the threat they posed illustrated how California’s 90,000-prisoner corrections system has failed to prepare for natural disasters. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Audit-of-the-California-Department-of-Corrections-and-Rehabilitations-Natural-Disaster-Emergency-Preparedness-and-Mitigation-Efforts.pdf\">according to a report issued last week\u003c/a> by an independent agency that oversees the department’s disciplinary process and internal investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While California’s prisons are vulnerable to wildfires, floods, and earthquakes, we found they are not adequately prepared to respond to emergencies posed by natural disasters,” stated the report by the Office of Inspector General, which reviewed emergency plans for 30 state prisons after fielding concerns about the department’s disaster response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report detailed deep fractures in the department’s emergency preparedness, including issues of transportation, varied risk assessment methodologies, lacking mutual aid agreements, timely evacuations, and prison overcrowding. As of December, California’s prison system was operating at roughly 120% — or 16,000 people — over its designed capacity, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only are some prisons overcrowded, but the department is unable to evacuate the incarcerated population and staff at most prisons within the first critical 72 hours of an emergency,” the report noted. “Without the ability to quickly evacuate prisons, it is likely that wildfires, floods, and earthquakes will result in loss of life within the incarcerated population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12038872 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/gettyimages-2210243092-1020x680.jpeg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, the inspector general found that none of the prisons included a plan to evacuate incarcerated people outside their gates, but rather focused on moving “the incarcerated population to and from locations within the prison.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report concluded with a list of 18 recommendations, including ones that would bring the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation into compliance with California regulations around emergency planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlee Purdum, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Houston who researches how disasters impact incarcerated people, said the report is a “first step” in identifying more resources to support prisons and corrections agencies as they plan and prepare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Purdum said. “Prisons and corrections agencies are very marginalized and isolated in the emergency and disaster planning space. The significant takeaway should be that we have not engaged in these kinds of discussions, and put forth the kind of state level resources and accountability into these institutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for years have been sounding the alarm over the ways in which California prisons are ill-equipped to confront climate hazards due to issues such as overcrowding and aging infrastructure. A \u003ca href=\"https://ellabakercenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Hidden-Hazards-Report-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2023 report (PDF)\u003c/a> by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the nonprofit organization Ella Baker Center for Human Rights chronicled those concerns and urged the state to implement safeguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People inside have a fear that the actual plan is to abandon them in the case of an emergency. It is deeply troubling,” said James King, director of programs for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. “In these public health crises, it’s not just going to affect the people in the prisons, either incarcerated there or working there. It’s going to impact the entire county, the entire community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/031623-Corcoran-Flood-LV_05-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003cfigcaption>Trucks driving through the flooded intersection on Highway 43 near Corcoran on March 15, 2023. The flood was caused by rising water levels on the Tule River after a series of storms. \u003cem>Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those concerns were echoed by Dax Proctor, statewide coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a statewide coalition of organizations that view climate hazards as a key reason to close prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The number one solution to address these issues at hand is to reduce the number of people locked up in California prisons as rapidly as possible,” Proctor said. “A good starting place would be those most vulnerable to climate hazards.”[aside postID=science_1996303 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/19-1115_0531-1020x679.jpg']Officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services answered questions about the report before lawmakers at a hearing Thursday. They assured lawmakers that the department would not work alone in a large-scale emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has a vast amount of resources and we would rely heavily on our federal, state and local partners to assist us with the evacuation of an entire prison,” said Melissa Prill, special agent-in-charge at the corrections department’s Office of Correctional Safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sen. Laura Richardson, a Democrat from Inglewood, said that in an unpredictable situation, those partners “may be busy assisting other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To assume that these other agencies are going to be available to help you, or to help us in a prison environment is not something, going forward, we have the freedom to assume,” Richardson said. “I would give this (office of inspector general)’s report of your organization — I would consider it an ‘F’ — frankly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Kelly Seyarto, a Republican from Murrieta, said he wasn’t “extremely critically concerned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re getting a little overboard in terms of thinking that we are going to have to evacuate entire prisons,” Seyarto said. “It’s just not a practical thing to think that somehow the whole prison is going to catch on fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to CalMatters, department spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said prisons take an “all-hazards” approach to emergency planning and that it coordinates its plans with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The department “follows the FEMA National Incident Management System, which is the national doctrine that provides all federal, state, and local response agencies with a consistent set of principles, management structures, and a systematic approach to emergency response.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King said the department has a history of being unprepared for climate hazards and instead reacts to them once they inevitably occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are simply facts,” King said. The department “could accept these facts and do something about them — or they could try to manage their response to the report. Disappointedly, it seems like they’ve chosen the latter. This is an opportunity to improve their response, to see the gaps and to create plans that address the gaps. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/05/prisons-natural-disasters/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, amid record-breaking rain and snow, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/prisons/\">two prisons\u003c/a> in the southern San Joaquin Valley faced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-04-26/newsom-visits-flood-threatened-corcoran\">serious risk of flooding\u003c/a>. But neither prison, California State Prison, Corcoran or the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, had a robust evacuation plan on hand and ready for the looming disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the prisons developed a joint plan to transfer roughly 8,000 incarcerated people to other state prisons within 11 to 14 days — or longer. Wheelchair-bound individuals, the plan stated, would take six days to evacuate. And department buses intended to shuttle people to safety could take up to a day to arrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The floods that year ultimately did not reach the prisons, but the threat they posed illustrated how California’s 90,000-prisoner corrections system has failed to prepare for natural disasters. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Audit-of-the-California-Department-of-Corrections-and-Rehabilitations-Natural-Disaster-Emergency-Preparedness-and-Mitigation-Efforts.pdf\">according to a report issued last week\u003c/a> by an independent agency that oversees the department’s disciplinary process and internal investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While California’s prisons are vulnerable to wildfires, floods, and earthquakes, we found they are not adequately prepared to respond to emergencies posed by natural disasters,” stated the report by the Office of Inspector General, which reviewed emergency plans for 30 state prisons after fielding concerns about the department’s disaster response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report detailed deep fractures in the department’s emergency preparedness, including issues of transportation, varied risk assessment methodologies, lacking mutual aid agreements, timely evacuations, and prison overcrowding. As of December, California’s prison system was operating at roughly 120% — or 16,000 people — over its designed capacity, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only are some prisons overcrowded, but the department is unable to evacuate the incarcerated population and staff at most prisons within the first critical 72 hours of an emergency,” the report noted. “Without the ability to quickly evacuate prisons, it is likely that wildfires, floods, and earthquakes will result in loss of life within the incarcerated population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, the inspector general found that none of the prisons included a plan to evacuate incarcerated people outside their gates, but rather focused on moving “the incarcerated population to and from locations within the prison.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report concluded with a list of 18 recommendations, including ones that would bring the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation into compliance with California regulations around emergency planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlee Purdum, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Houston who researches how disasters impact incarcerated people, said the report is a “first step” in identifying more resources to support prisons and corrections agencies as they plan and prepare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Purdum said. “Prisons and corrections agencies are very marginalized and isolated in the emergency and disaster planning space. The significant takeaway should be that we have not engaged in these kinds of discussions, and put forth the kind of state level resources and accountability into these institutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for years have been sounding the alarm over the ways in which California prisons are ill-equipped to confront climate hazards due to issues such as overcrowding and aging infrastructure. A \u003ca href=\"https://ellabakercenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Hidden-Hazards-Report-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2023 report (PDF)\u003c/a> by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the nonprofit organization Ella Baker Center for Human Rights chronicled those concerns and urged the state to implement safeguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People inside have a fear that the actual plan is to abandon them in the case of an emergency. It is deeply troubling,” said James King, director of programs for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. “In these public health crises, it’s not just going to affect the people in the prisons, either incarcerated there or working there. It’s going to impact the entire county, the entire community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/031623-Corcoran-Flood-LV_05-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003cfigcaption>Trucks driving through the flooded intersection on Highway 43 near Corcoran on March 15, 2023. The flood was caused by rising water levels on the Tule River after a series of storms. \u003cem>Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those concerns were echoed by Dax Proctor, statewide coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a statewide coalition of organizations that view climate hazards as a key reason to close prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The number one solution to address these issues at hand is to reduce the number of people locked up in California prisons as rapidly as possible,” Proctor said. “A good starting place would be those most vulnerable to climate hazards.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services answered questions about the report before lawmakers at a hearing Thursday. They assured lawmakers that the department would not work alone in a large-scale emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has a vast amount of resources and we would rely heavily on our federal, state and local partners to assist us with the evacuation of an entire prison,” said Melissa Prill, special agent-in-charge at the corrections department’s Office of Correctional Safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sen. Laura Richardson, a Democrat from Inglewood, said that in an unpredictable situation, those partners “may be busy assisting other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To assume that these other agencies are going to be available to help you, or to help us in a prison environment is not something, going forward, we have the freedom to assume,” Richardson said. “I would give this (office of inspector general)’s report of your organization — I would consider it an ‘F’ — frankly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Kelly Seyarto, a Republican from Murrieta, said he wasn’t “extremely critically concerned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re getting a little overboard in terms of thinking that we are going to have to evacuate entire prisons,” Seyarto said. “It’s just not a practical thing to think that somehow the whole prison is going to catch on fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to CalMatters, department spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said prisons take an “all-hazards” approach to emergency planning and that it coordinates its plans with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The department “follows the FEMA National Incident Management System, which is the national doctrine that provides all federal, state, and local response agencies with a consistent set of principles, management structures, and a systematic approach to emergency response.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King said the department has a history of being unprepared for climate hazards and instead reacts to them once they inevitably occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are simply facts,” King said. The department “could accept these facts and do something about them — or they could try to manage their response to the report. Disappointedly, it seems like they’ve chosen the latter. This is an opportunity to improve their response, to see the gaps and to create plans that address the gaps. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/05/prisons-natural-disasters/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "miles-of-delta-levees-are-at-risk-of-floods-repairs-could-cost-3-billion",
"title": "Miles of Delta Levees Are at Risk of Floods. Repairs Could Cost $3 billion",
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"headTitle": "Miles of Delta Levees Are at Risk of Floods. Repairs Could Cost $3 billion | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As winter storms soaked California in \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/01/california-floods-sacramento-valley/\">early 2023\u003c/a>, the Sacramento River swelled toward flood stage. Levees protecting large expanses of farmland and many towns sprung leaks. At one site, response crews drove metal sheets into the earthen berm and lined the levee face with heavy rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work cost almost $700,000, paid by local farmers who had to take out a loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was way beyond our means, but we had to do it,” said Daniel Wilson, a farmer near the Delta town of Walnut Grove and trustee of the management agency responsible for the levee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the region was declared a disaster zone, funding help was available through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_dr-4699-ca-public-notice-004.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federal Emergency Management Agency (PDF)\u003c/a>. But two years later, the money still hasn’t arrived. Other districts in the region also are waiting for reimbursements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is facing a funding crisis that has bogged down efforts to repair and maintain an aging network of about 1,100 miles of levees that protect the region from floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These protective ridges of dirt and rocks, mostly on private land, are at growing risk of rupturing, which would endanger half a million people, mostly in Stockton but also in smaller towns and farmsteads. Also threatened are thousands of acres of farmland, highways and water supply pumps that send water to much of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The summer of 2004 saw a major failure when the privately owned levee surrounding a large parcel of farmers’ fields called \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/california_waterfix/exhibits/docs/PPorgans/porgans_301.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jones Tract (PDF)\u003c/a>, which mostly sits below sea level, burst. Water surged through the break, flooding 12,000 acres, which remained swamped for months. Dozens of barns and a few homes were submerged. The response and repair effort — including rebuilding hundreds of feet of levee and pumping out the water — cost $90 million in government and private funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, last year, water seeped under a levee that rings Victoria Island west of Stockton, just a few miles north of pumping stations that send water to 30 million Californians and vast tracts of farmland. A breach would have created powerful suction, drawing in large volumes of brackish San Francisco Bay water and forcing the pumps to shut down for weeks. Crews drove sheet piles deep into the levee to stem the leak and stop the flow of water under the levee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without substantial improvements to Delta levees in the next 25 years, “more than $10 billion in agricultural, residential, commercial, and infrastructure assets and nearly $2 billion in annual economic activity would be exposed to flooding,” according to an estimate from the Delta Stewardship Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Mount, a geomorphologist and water infrastructure expert with the Public Policy Institute of California, said the recent near-miss at Victoria Island could be a harbinger of more dangerous levee breaks to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12025860 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/GettyImages-1252054830-1020x574.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is considered one of the really good levees, and they nearly lost it,” Mount said. “So what about the other ones?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With state and federal assistance programs falling behind on reimbursements or losing funding, landowners are struggling to keep pace with maintenance. Many are in debt from recent projects, and the backlog of upgrades and repairs is growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars are needed to upgrade the Delta’s levees to basic safety standards, but the estimated costs far exceed the funding metered out by state and federal agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Repairing Delta levees could cost at least $3.2 billion by 2050, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://deltacouncil.ca.gov/pdf/delta-plan/2024-11-18-delta-adapts-draft-adaptation-plan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Delta Stewardship Council (PDF)\u003c/a>. State water officials estimate that about \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Delta-Levees-Special-Flood-Control-Projects/Files/Compilation-of-2018-Delta-Levees-Five-Year-Plan-Data.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$1.06 billion (PDF)\u003c/a> is needed for Delta levee upgrades in just the next five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the entire Central Valley, the problem balloons to $30 billion in overdue upgrades to protect against worst-case scenario flooding, which could cause $1 trillion in damage, according to the state’s 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://cvfpb.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Central_Valley_Flood_Protection_Plan_Update_2022_ADOPTED.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the districts in the Central Valley have a list of projects that they would like to get accomplished,” said Meegan Nagy, general manager of the Sacramento River West Side Levee District, which manages levees upstream of the state capital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few miles southeast of Sacramento, a privately owned levee system beside the Cosumnes River ruptured on New Year’s Eve in 2022 during a powerful downpour. The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/01/california-floods-sacramento-valley/\">flooding\u003c/a> killed three people, swamped homes, shut down Highway 99 and washed away vehicles. The local levee management agency, funded by its landowners, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.therivervalleytimes.com/2025/02/05/522291/sloughhouse-levee-erosion-prompts-emergency-declaration\">reportedly still waiting\u003c/a> for federal emergency relief money two years later and, as of January, still owed the bank $7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035463\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035463\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1402\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-800x561.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-1020x715.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-1536x1077.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-1920x1346.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crews repair a levee on the north side of the Cosumnes River on Jan. 2, 2023, after it was breached by heavy rains that flooded Sacramento County roads and properties near Wilton. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/Reuters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stockton, on the eastern edge of the Delta, faces a constant risk of flooding. U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat from Tracy, said the problem stems from inadequate federal funding for levee upkeep and red tape that hinders maintenance and repairs by local agencies. He has co-authored a bill, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5304/text\">Safeguarding Our Levees Act\u003c/a>, that would address some of these issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long we’ve been left behind in federal funding,” Harder said. “No family should have to watch floodwater pour into their living room while government stalls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parts of the region are essentially on borrowed time, with levees facing a uniquely overbearing workload, said Steven Deverel, a hydrologist at HydroFocus, Inc., who has studied Delta levees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most levees, he explained, hold back water only during high flow events. But in the Delta, “levees are really more like dams in that they have to hold back water 24–7.” This unique arrangement makes much of the region particularly vulnerable to flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You basically have holes in the ground as much as 25 feet deep, and the only thing that holds back the water is levees,” Mount said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pumping the water out is increasingly expensive because of rising electricity rates, said engineer Gilbert Cosio with River Delta Consulting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last few years have been a perfect storm for expenditures,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Landowners in debt for fixing levees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since the 1970s, California has invested \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36t9s0mp#:~:text=%3E%20%24700%20million%20since%20the%20mid%2D1970s\">more than $700 million\u003c/a> in Delta levee work. Just the last two budget cycles have dedicated $560 million to flood response and flood protection statewide, plus other investments, according to Laura Hollender, the California Department of Water Resources’ deputy director of flood management and dam safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Delta locals worry that critical programs protecting their region are being sidelined. The state cut a key levee maintenance fund from the budget this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sluggish state reimbursements on cost-shared projects through the \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Delta-Levees-Maintenance-Subventions\">Delta Levees Maintenance Subventions Program\u003c/a> leaves local landowners — who must front the costs of repairs — accruing interest on loans they can’t pay back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s expensive and these districts go into debt to do these projects,” said Emily Pappalardo, an engineer with the local firm that designed and directed Wilson’s levee repair in 2023, DCC Engineering Co., in Walnut Grove. “Every dollar these districts spend should be on improving and maintaining their levees instead of chasing after the money to do it … or paying interest on loans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson said that the FEMA reimbursement would not cover the costs of borrowing money to pay for the repairs. “The whole time the interest clock is ticking,” he said. That means less money for further levee upkeep. “If we had an issue this winter or last winter, we’d have been in a world of hurt,” Wilson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035467\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: River Road, also known as State Route 160, runs along a levee on the Sacramento River. Right: A repaired section of the levee near Isleton on the Sacramento River. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until several years ago, according to sources, levee upgrades completed in the fall were followed by state reimbursements in the spring. “By the end of June, everyone had their money” in time to start working on spring and summer levee projects, said Cosio, at River Delta Consulting. “Now, it’s not until the fall or later that we get the money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmer Harvey Correia, who has orchards near Isleton, said state claim filing requirements and slow processing mean that in some cases more than two years can pass before landowners are reimbursed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we’re paying interest on loans while we’re waiting for money from the state,” Correia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jason Ince, a spokesperson at the Department of Water Resources, said the agency strives to process payments “as quickly as possible” but said each request must be investigated and verified through site visits and coordination with other agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson, near Walnut Grove, said many local levee managers are financially swamped. “They’re in debt beyond their ability to pay it back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pappalardo, who grew up in the Delta, wants to see more consistent funding of the levees subventions program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the program relies on periodic bond funding. The current cash pool amounts to about $14 million and derives from bonds that voters approved in 2014 and 2006, Ince said.[aside postID=science_1994168 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-112-BL-2-1020x680.jpg']Late last year, voters approved \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/11/california-election-news-proposition-4-environment/\">Proposition 4\u003c/a>, a $10 billion water, wildlife and climate bond, directing \u003ca href=\"https://vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov/2024/general/pdf/prop4-text-proposed-laws.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$150 million (PDF)\u003c/a> to Delta flood protection, levee upgrades and climate resiliency work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sources said they expect it will provide more money for the program, but they emphasized that it, too, will run out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These levees aren’t going anywhere,” Pappalardo said. “This is infrastructure and these costs are always going to be here … this is general maintenance.” Ideally, she said, money would come from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also frustrated at the trickling pace of subventions funding for Delta levees is Stockton attorney Dante Nomellini, Jr., who has represented the Central Delta Water Agency and several Delta reclamation districts. He said the program is “well-oiled” but that its funding could be more reliable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The funding dries up every few years and we have to fight to get more,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Neudeck, a levee engineer whose firm — Kjeldsen, Sinnock & Neudeck, Inc — repaired the Victoria Island breach this winter, believes the flagging funding for levees has a simple explanation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s called the flood memory half-life,” he said. “How long does a politician hold memory of a disaster? Many say it’s six months, others say nine months … If we don’t have a flood event every year, we’re screwed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An uncertain future for the Delta\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Levee upgrades come in different forms. Some are relatively quick and easy, involving basic materials — like riprap, the rocks and boulders that line many levees — to provide armoring against erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others are more sophisticated. One nearly finished project near the Delta town of Isleton, along Highway 160, builds in fish and bird habitat in the form of vegetated “benches” near the water line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The benches serve a double purpose,” said Pappalardo, whose firm designed the project. “While they provide habitat, they also reduce the velocity of the river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Pappalardo’s project provides multiple benefits, the upgrade qualified for a 94% funding reimbursement from the state. But the total cost was about $18 million for 1.4 miles of levee, and the 6% that the reclamation district must cover on its own “is still a heavy lift for them,” Pappalardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035471\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emily Pappalardo, principal engineer at DCC Engineering Co. Inc., is shown on the banks of the Sacramento River near Isleton. Pappalardo helped oversee the Sacramento River Erosion Repair and Habitat Enhancement Project to reduce bank erosion by planting native vegetation along the Sacramento River and levees. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035473\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">First: Native vegetation is protected by beaver fencing on the bank of the Sacramento River near Isleton. Last: Tule was planted along the banks of the Sacramento River near Isleton. The native plants reduce erosion of the river’s levee system. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though costly and tangled in thickets of program and agency acronyms, most levee upgrade projects are not terribly complicated. They often involve dump trucks dropping material on top of or down a slope of a levee. Barges can help. The goal in most projects is to build the levee, vertically and horizontally, to dimensions defined by several distinct \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Delta-Levees-Special-Flood-Control-Projects/Files/Compilation-of-2018-Delta-Levees-Five-Year-Plan-Data.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">standards (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These federal and state standards call for a range of parameters in levee height, width and slope steepness. Among these standards is that of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Emergency-Operations/PL-84-99/#:~:text=Public%20Law%2084%2D99%2C%20Emergency,and%20after%20a%20flood%20event.\">Public Law 84-99\u003c/a>. Certain levees built to this standard are eligible for support from the Army Corps should they leak or break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2019, the \u003ca href=\"https://cvfpb.ca.gov/news/dwr-has-released-the-flood-maintenance-assistance-program-fmap-guidelines/\">Flood Maintenance Assistance Program\u003c/a>, enacted by the Department of Water Resources, has provided local levee maintenance agencies with $40 million to help their levees comply with the federal standard.[aside postID=news_12016813 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/170111_KingTide_bhs14-1020x680.jpg']This has leveraged massive amounts of federal funding when levees damaged by high waters need to be repaired, said Nagy at the Sacramento River West Side Levee District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my district alone, since 2017, we have had about $30 million worth of federal funding for post-flood repairs,” Nagy said. The program “is one of the most successful programs the department has executed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the state’s Flood Maintenance Assistance Program was put “on hold” this year due to budget constraints, according to the Department of Water Resources. Nagy worries this could accelerate levee deterioration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have multiple years when that program is not funded, then every year we get closer to losing eligibility for federal funding post-flood,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36t9s0mp\">assessment\u003c/a> of Delta levee vulnerability in 2016, Deverel and several coauthors wrote that although general compliance with various standards is “encouraging,” fully protecting any given island in the Delta “requires 100% compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nomellini thinks full protection is achievable. “This is not rocket science,” he said. “This is dirt and rock. If there was the political will, we could have the best levees west of the Mississippi.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mount said the amount of money needed to maintain the Delta’s levees may be the most insurmountable obstacle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What do you do if you don’t have the money?” he said. “What is the long-term vision for the Delta?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Delta Stewardship Council, Jeff Henderson, deputy executive officer of planning and performance, said parts of the western Delta more exposed to the influence of tides and rising sea level may face an uncertain future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In such locations, reinforcing levees may become technically or financially unsustainable over time, prompting conversations about alternative strategies,” Henderson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erosion and weathering are just two factors gnawing at levee integrity. Burrowing beavers cause occasional collapses. So have invasive \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Invasives/Species/Nutria/Infestation\">nutria\u003c/a>, semi-aquatic rodents native to South America and now a recognized nuisance to California’s wetlands and levees. Toppling trees, too, can tear out the flank of a levee, and earthquakes are considered a constant danger — though just how serious is debated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another matter that has progressively compromised the Delta’s levees is subsidence — the land is sinking, an outcome of when \u003ca href=\"https://www.wri.org/insights/what-peat-subsidence-and-how-can-countries-prevent-environmental-disaster#:~:text=As%20a%20result%2C%20the%20previously,carbon%20losses%20%2C%20which%20triggers%20subsidence.\">peat soil\u003c/a> is exposed to oxygen and breaks down, emitting carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 2 billion cubic meters of Delta soil volume has disappeared since the 1850s, according to Deverel’s 2016 paper. Today, much cropland and scattered residences lie a precarious 15 to 20 feet and more \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36t9s0mp#:~:text=Land%20surface%20elevations\">below sea level\u003c/a>. All the while, the ocean is rising, though slowly, and winter flooding is growing more extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have rising sea level, increasing winter storms and atmospheric rivers, and the longer it’s been since the last earthquake the closer we are to the next,” Mount said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He predicts that lower-value land will eventually go underwater as levees wear out and the will to maintain them wanes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Will the Delta look like this forever?” he asked. “The answer is no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated on April 8 to clarify a grower’s comments on why reimbursements sometimes take two years.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/04/delta-levees-risk-of-floods-repairs-cost-3-billion/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Delta faces a funding crisis to repair and maintain an aging network of 1,100 miles of levees. These earthen berms, mostly on private land, could rupture and endanger half a million people and flood thousands of acres of farmland.",
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"title": "Miles of Delta Levees Are at Risk of Floods. Repairs Could Cost $3 billion | KQED",
"description": "The Delta faces a funding crisis to repair and maintain an aging network of 1,100 miles of levees. These earthen berms, mostly on private land, could rupture and endanger half a million people and flood thousands of acres of farmland.",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/alastair-bland/\">Alastair Bland\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As winter storms soaked California in \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/01/california-floods-sacramento-valley/\">early 2023\u003c/a>, the Sacramento River swelled toward flood stage. Levees protecting large expanses of farmland and many towns sprung leaks. At one site, response crews drove metal sheets into the earthen berm and lined the levee face with heavy rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work cost almost $700,000, paid by local farmers who had to take out a loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was way beyond our means, but we had to do it,” said Daniel Wilson, a farmer near the Delta town of Walnut Grove and trustee of the management agency responsible for the levee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the region was declared a disaster zone, funding help was available through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_dr-4699-ca-public-notice-004.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federal Emergency Management Agency (PDF)\u003c/a>. But two years later, the money still hasn’t arrived. Other districts in the region also are waiting for reimbursements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is facing a funding crisis that has bogged down efforts to repair and maintain an aging network of about 1,100 miles of levees that protect the region from floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These protective ridges of dirt and rocks, mostly on private land, are at growing risk of rupturing, which would endanger half a million people, mostly in Stockton but also in smaller towns and farmsteads. Also threatened are thousands of acres of farmland, highways and water supply pumps that send water to much of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The summer of 2004 saw a major failure when the privately owned levee surrounding a large parcel of farmers’ fields called \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/california_waterfix/exhibits/docs/PPorgans/porgans_301.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jones Tract (PDF)\u003c/a>, which mostly sits below sea level, burst. Water surged through the break, flooding 12,000 acres, which remained swamped for months. Dozens of barns and a few homes were submerged. The response and repair effort — including rebuilding hundreds of feet of levee and pumping out the water — cost $90 million in government and private funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, last year, water seeped under a levee that rings Victoria Island west of Stockton, just a few miles north of pumping stations that send water to 30 million Californians and vast tracts of farmland. A breach would have created powerful suction, drawing in large volumes of brackish San Francisco Bay water and forcing the pumps to shut down for weeks. Crews drove sheet piles deep into the levee to stem the leak and stop the flow of water under the levee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without substantial improvements to Delta levees in the next 25 years, “more than $10 billion in agricultural, residential, commercial, and infrastructure assets and nearly $2 billion in annual economic activity would be exposed to flooding,” according to an estimate from the Delta Stewardship Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Mount, a geomorphologist and water infrastructure expert with the Public Policy Institute of California, said the recent near-miss at Victoria Island could be a harbinger of more dangerous levee breaks to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is considered one of the really good levees, and they nearly lost it,” Mount said. “So what about the other ones?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With state and federal assistance programs falling behind on reimbursements or losing funding, landowners are struggling to keep pace with maintenance. Many are in debt from recent projects, and the backlog of upgrades and repairs is growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars are needed to upgrade the Delta’s levees to basic safety standards, but the estimated costs far exceed the funding metered out by state and federal agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Repairing Delta levees could cost at least $3.2 billion by 2050, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://deltacouncil.ca.gov/pdf/delta-plan/2024-11-18-delta-adapts-draft-adaptation-plan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Delta Stewardship Council (PDF)\u003c/a>. State water officials estimate that about \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Delta-Levees-Special-Flood-Control-Projects/Files/Compilation-of-2018-Delta-Levees-Five-Year-Plan-Data.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$1.06 billion (PDF)\u003c/a> is needed for Delta levee upgrades in just the next five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the entire Central Valley, the problem balloons to $30 billion in overdue upgrades to protect against worst-case scenario flooding, which could cause $1 trillion in damage, according to the state’s 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://cvfpb.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Central_Valley_Flood_Protection_Plan_Update_2022_ADOPTED.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the districts in the Central Valley have a list of projects that they would like to get accomplished,” said Meegan Nagy, general manager of the Sacramento River West Side Levee District, which manages levees upstream of the state capital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few miles southeast of Sacramento, a privately owned levee system beside the Cosumnes River ruptured on New Year’s Eve in 2022 during a powerful downpour. The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/01/california-floods-sacramento-valley/\">flooding\u003c/a> killed three people, swamped homes, shut down Highway 99 and washed away vehicles. The local levee management agency, funded by its landowners, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.therivervalleytimes.com/2025/02/05/522291/sloughhouse-levee-erosion-prompts-emergency-declaration\">reportedly still waiting\u003c/a> for federal emergency relief money two years later and, as of January, still owed the bank $7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035463\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035463\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1402\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-800x561.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-1020x715.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-1536x1077.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/010323-WILTON-FLOODING-REUTERS-FG-CM-copy-1920x1346.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crews repair a levee on the north side of the Cosumnes River on Jan. 2, 2023, after it was breached by heavy rains that flooded Sacramento County roads and properties near Wilton. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/Reuters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stockton, on the eastern edge of the Delta, faces a constant risk of flooding. U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat from Tracy, said the problem stems from inadequate federal funding for levee upkeep and red tape that hinders maintenance and repairs by local agencies. He has co-authored a bill, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5304/text\">Safeguarding Our Levees Act\u003c/a>, that would address some of these issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long we’ve been left behind in federal funding,” Harder said. “No family should have to watch floodwater pour into their living room while government stalls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parts of the region are essentially on borrowed time, with levees facing a uniquely overbearing workload, said Steven Deverel, a hydrologist at HydroFocus, Inc., who has studied Delta levees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most levees, he explained, hold back water only during high flow events. But in the Delta, “levees are really more like dams in that they have to hold back water 24–7.” This unique arrangement makes much of the region particularly vulnerable to flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You basically have holes in the ground as much as 25 feet deep, and the only thing that holds back the water is levees,” Mount said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pumping the water out is increasingly expensive because of rising electricity rates, said engineer Gilbert Cosio with River Delta Consulting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last few years have been a perfect storm for expenditures,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Landowners in debt for fixing levees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since the 1970s, California has invested \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36t9s0mp#:~:text=%3E%20%24700%20million%20since%20the%20mid%2D1970s\">more than $700 million\u003c/a> in Delta levee work. Just the last two budget cycles have dedicated $560 million to flood response and flood protection statewide, plus other investments, according to Laura Hollender, the California Department of Water Resources’ deputy director of flood management and dam safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Delta locals worry that critical programs protecting their region are being sidelined. The state cut a key levee maintenance fund from the budget this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sluggish state reimbursements on cost-shared projects through the \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Delta-Levees-Maintenance-Subventions\">Delta Levees Maintenance Subventions Program\u003c/a> leaves local landowners — who must front the costs of repairs — accruing interest on loans they can’t pay back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s expensive and these districts go into debt to do these projects,” said Emily Pappalardo, an engineer with the local firm that designed and directed Wilson’s levee repair in 2023, DCC Engineering Co., in Walnut Grove. “Every dollar these districts spend should be on improving and maintaining their levees instead of chasing after the money to do it … or paying interest on loans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson said that the FEMA reimbursement would not cover the costs of borrowing money to pay for the repairs. “The whole time the interest clock is ticking,” he said. That means less money for further levee upkeep. “If we had an issue this winter or last winter, we’d have been in a world of hurt,” Wilson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035467\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-6-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: River Road, also known as State Route 160, runs along a levee on the Sacramento River. Right: A repaired section of the levee near Isleton on the Sacramento River. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until several years ago, according to sources, levee upgrades completed in the fall were followed by state reimbursements in the spring. “By the end of June, everyone had their money” in time to start working on spring and summer levee projects, said Cosio, at River Delta Consulting. “Now, it’s not until the fall or later that we get the money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmer Harvey Correia, who has orchards near Isleton, said state claim filing requirements and slow processing mean that in some cases more than two years can pass before landowners are reimbursed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we’re paying interest on loans while we’re waiting for money from the state,” Correia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jason Ince, a spokesperson at the Department of Water Resources, said the agency strives to process payments “as quickly as possible” but said each request must be investigated and verified through site visits and coordination with other agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson, near Walnut Grove, said many local levee managers are financially swamped. “They’re in debt beyond their ability to pay it back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pappalardo, who grew up in the Delta, wants to see more consistent funding of the levees subventions program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the program relies on periodic bond funding. The current cash pool amounts to about $14 million and derives from bonds that voters approved in 2014 and 2006, Ince said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Late last year, voters approved \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/11/california-election-news-proposition-4-environment/\">Proposition 4\u003c/a>, a $10 billion water, wildlife and climate bond, directing \u003ca href=\"https://vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov/2024/general/pdf/prop4-text-proposed-laws.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$150 million (PDF)\u003c/a> to Delta flood protection, levee upgrades and climate resiliency work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sources said they expect it will provide more money for the program, but they emphasized that it, too, will run out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These levees aren’t going anywhere,” Pappalardo said. “This is infrastructure and these costs are always going to be here … this is general maintenance.” Ideally, she said, money would come from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also frustrated at the trickling pace of subventions funding for Delta levees is Stockton attorney Dante Nomellini, Jr., who has represented the Central Delta Water Agency and several Delta reclamation districts. He said the program is “well-oiled” but that its funding could be more reliable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The funding dries up every few years and we have to fight to get more,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Neudeck, a levee engineer whose firm — Kjeldsen, Sinnock & Neudeck, Inc — repaired the Victoria Island breach this winter, believes the flagging funding for levees has a simple explanation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s called the flood memory half-life,” he said. “How long does a politician hold memory of a disaster? Many say it’s six months, others say nine months … If we don’t have a flood event every year, we’re screwed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An uncertain future for the Delta\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Levee upgrades come in different forms. Some are relatively quick and easy, involving basic materials — like riprap, the rocks and boulders that line many levees — to provide armoring against erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others are more sophisticated. One nearly finished project near the Delta town of Isleton, along Highway 160, builds in fish and bird habitat in the form of vegetated “benches” near the water line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The benches serve a double purpose,” said Pappalardo, whose firm designed the project. “While they provide habitat, they also reduce the velocity of the river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Pappalardo’s project provides multiple benefits, the upgrade qualified for a 94% funding reimbursement from the state. But the total cost was about $18 million for 1.4 miles of levee, and the 6% that the reclamation district must cover on its own “is still a heavy lift for them,” Pappalardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035471\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/040125_Isleton-Delta_MG_10-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emily Pappalardo, principal engineer at DCC Engineering Co. Inc., is shown on the banks of the Sacramento River near Isleton. Pappalardo helped oversee the Sacramento River Erosion Repair and Habitat Enhancement Project to reduce bank erosion by planting native vegetation along the Sacramento River and levees. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035473\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-7-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">First: Native vegetation is protected by beaver fencing on the bank of the Sacramento River near Isleton. Last: Tule was planted along the banks of the Sacramento River near Isleton. The native plants reduce erosion of the river’s levee system. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though costly and tangled in thickets of program and agency acronyms, most levee upgrade projects are not terribly complicated. They often involve dump trucks dropping material on top of or down a slope of a levee. Barges can help. The goal in most projects is to build the levee, vertically and horizontally, to dimensions defined by several distinct \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Delta-Levees-Special-Flood-Control-Projects/Files/Compilation-of-2018-Delta-Levees-Five-Year-Plan-Data.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">standards (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These federal and state standards call for a range of parameters in levee height, width and slope steepness. Among these standards is that of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Emergency-Operations/PL-84-99/#:~:text=Public%20Law%2084%2D99%2C%20Emergency,and%20after%20a%20flood%20event.\">Public Law 84-99\u003c/a>. Certain levees built to this standard are eligible for support from the Army Corps should they leak or break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2019, the \u003ca href=\"https://cvfpb.ca.gov/news/dwr-has-released-the-flood-maintenance-assistance-program-fmap-guidelines/\">Flood Maintenance Assistance Program\u003c/a>, enacted by the Department of Water Resources, has provided local levee maintenance agencies with $40 million to help their levees comply with the federal standard.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This has leveraged massive amounts of federal funding when levees damaged by high waters need to be repaired, said Nagy at the Sacramento River West Side Levee District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my district alone, since 2017, we have had about $30 million worth of federal funding for post-flood repairs,” Nagy said. The program “is one of the most successful programs the department has executed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the state’s Flood Maintenance Assistance Program was put “on hold” this year due to budget constraints, according to the Department of Water Resources. Nagy worries this could accelerate levee deterioration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have multiple years when that program is not funded, then every year we get closer to losing eligibility for federal funding post-flood,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36t9s0mp\">assessment\u003c/a> of Delta levee vulnerability in 2016, Deverel and several coauthors wrote that although general compliance with various standards is “encouraging,” fully protecting any given island in the Delta “requires 100% compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nomellini thinks full protection is achievable. “This is not rocket science,” he said. “This is dirt and rock. If there was the political will, we could have the best levees west of the Mississippi.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mount said the amount of money needed to maintain the Delta’s levees may be the most insurmountable obstacle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What do you do if you don’t have the money?” he said. “What is the long-term vision for the Delta?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Delta Stewardship Council, Jeff Henderson, deputy executive officer of planning and performance, said parts of the western Delta more exposed to the influence of tides and rising sea level may face an uncertain future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In such locations, reinforcing levees may become technically or financially unsustainable over time, prompting conversations about alternative strategies,” Henderson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erosion and weathering are just two factors gnawing at levee integrity. Burrowing beavers cause occasional collapses. So have invasive \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Invasives/Species/Nutria/Infestation\">nutria\u003c/a>, semi-aquatic rodents native to South America and now a recognized nuisance to California’s wetlands and levees. Toppling trees, too, can tear out the flank of a levee, and earthquakes are considered a constant danger — though just how serious is debated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another matter that has progressively compromised the Delta’s levees is subsidence — the land is sinking, an outcome of when \u003ca href=\"https://www.wri.org/insights/what-peat-subsidence-and-how-can-countries-prevent-environmental-disaster#:~:text=As%20a%20result%2C%20the%20previously,carbon%20losses%20%2C%20which%20triggers%20subsidence.\">peat soil\u003c/a> is exposed to oxygen and breaks down, emitting carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 2 billion cubic meters of Delta soil volume has disappeared since the 1850s, according to Deverel’s 2016 paper. Today, much cropland and scattered residences lie a precarious 15 to 20 feet and more \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36t9s0mp#:~:text=Land%20surface%20elevations\">below sea level\u003c/a>. All the while, the ocean is rising, though slowly, and winter flooding is growing more extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have rising sea level, increasing winter storms and atmospheric rivers, and the longer it’s been since the last earthquake the closer we are to the next,” Mount said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He predicts that lower-value land will eventually go underwater as levees wear out and the will to maintain them wanes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Will the Delta look like this forever?” he asked. “The answer is no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated on April 8 to clarify a grower’s comments on why reimbursements sometimes take two years.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/04/delta-levees-risk-of-floods-repairs-cost-3-billion/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
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"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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},
"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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