Flood Management
Headwaters Magazine
It is our hubris that has made some of us vulnerable to the challenges of this wet year. It is our hubris that has permitted many to experience the trauma of having their lives upended by floodwaters. It is our hubris that has left so many of our floodplain neighbors without flood insurance and the real ability to recover from flooding.
As floods rage with rainfall and snowmelt, one has to wonder about high water yet to come, and also to reflect on floods we’ve endured.
On February 20, 1986 I lived ten long blocks from the American River, but still a full story beneath the level of floodwaters brimming Sacramento’s levee. At a riverfront park I climbed to the top of the skinny pile of rock that—as a levee—constituted the city’s tenuous defense and, with water lapping at my feet on the other side, I watched angry flows sudsing toward sea. Turning back the other way, I looked down on the roofs of the city.