Rome - these are not unusual occurances here along the Sacramento River but will give you an Idea of how much a storm can cause the river to rise.
North of Colusa, there are two weirs - areas where the river is allowed to flow beyond normal limits. these are "safety valves" so to speak and do divert a lot of water to the bypass.

For comparrison values - last summer the typical elevation at Colusa was running between 38 & 40 feet.  
69 feet is evacuation time here.
Note the elevations posted on the pictures -

CTS

Thank you CTS

all the smaller dams and spillways i have designed were for a 100 storm--and the overflow spillways were designed for 500 year storms--- most of these spillways were for mills back in the day

nature does what it does...and water means a lot...all i can remember over the years is how dry California is....so quite a turnaround, it will take a lot to raise water table..
-my sympathy to those impacted worse, not a small deal when it's destructive
-double edge sword...but we need it..in moderate doses

My prayers for those sufferings from to much water.

California never seems to be moderate about anything, weather included. Nothing new about the deluge of rain this year. It happens when it happens. In 1982 long range weather repletely talked of the coming La Nina and all the rain we would get. I did not believe them. Very normal winter rain till mid Jan. of 83. I was prepared to finish seeding my grain. Cloudy and a bit of mist as friend took the RD7 and cultivator to finish off the last few acres. I filled the drill and was off. Real rain off and on as I filled the drill for the second time of the day. By 11 it was real rain, time get the 2 miles back to the pavement. Seed truck stuck on the one little hill. But there sat the RD7 idling away. Friend was a IH guy you never shut them off without a good bit of cooling down. Pulled the truck to the crest, shut the 7 off and slide my way home. Dad just made up the canyon to get me to my pickup. It was after April 15 sometime before I could get back again and see the 5 acres not seeded before. Weather guessers had me fooled I thought they where getting good at what they did. Boy was I WRONG. They just got luck that time.


The 82-83 season was over 60 inches, were normal is 20. This morning I went over 50 with about month to 6 weeks of the rainy season left. In my close to 68 years I think 6 of these real wet years, so one every 10 years or so. But no telling as how far apart they really come because both 67 and 69 were wet here. And just because one part of the state is wet does not mean the other end is not dry ether.

So pray for a slow snow melt in the Sierra's to prevent flooding in the central valley flooding all the way to San Francisco. Bay.

Yes, I am hoping the best for many of those displaced/soon to be evacuated from their homes. Not a good feeling to be wet, miserable and left in the cold;add that some have animals whether they be pets or livestock. Add that normal tomato transplanting is behind schedule now; stories of some trying to source new land to compensate for lost acreage by relocating to any open spaces in the wine country, even with rolling ground. Desperation mode...paste prices should be rising now.
Yes, it is wet here too. Going to be a over an inch by this evening here. Farm workers here wearing rain gear to work in the orchards, which is unheard of. Glad someone wants to work and earn their wages still. It is getting uglier all over. Meanwhile, the leader here can't decide if drought is over and still expects us to ration water, so someone on the opposite end of the state can buy it away from us.
Track sets for sprayers that one could not sell for more than scrap value, are now worth $$$ to anyone trying to get into an orchard with a ground rig. I am turning people away, asking if they can buy/rent/borrow/steal a crawler from me now. Go figure. The latest auction had a small crawler with brand new rails and side tanks; sold for an unbelievable amount over 20k.
Time to make sure my boat is ready. JM

I would have built a acre or two pond and used the dirt to build a levee around my house and built a high area to park equipment on.

My old uncle always said. You Do What you Can with a wheel tractor. And you do what you WANT with a CAT! Tracks will always have place when it gets wet a fancy new wheel tractor is just about worthless

Austin Western 300 Pacer - 4-71 Detroit
This is a photo taken on I-80 West Bound just west of Kingvale Interchange. Elevation approx 6200 feet.
I am trying to bust through a bank to drain the water from freeway - there is a paved overside drain that is in front of me.
This is what happens when you have substantial snowbanks and then a "Pineapple Express" strikes, rain well above 7000 feet elevation
!982. but I have forgotten the rest of the details, a friend sent the photo to me years ago.

There was a box culvert that ran under US 40 to the Yuba River - it washed out, cutting access to the local "Donner Trail School".

I have very few photos of work on I-80 - we were always too busy and of course, we never considered taking pictures of what we did.  I do regret that today.



CTS

Oh no! I heard some areas are going to get another four feet of snow! I had at most maybe three inches here at once for the whole fricken winter, crazy weather!