[NYTr] California Levee Emergency Declared
 
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:41:34 -0400 (EDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
AP via The Washington Post - Apr 11, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041100288_pf.html

Calif. Governor Calls Flooding Emergency

By DON THOMPSON
The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Rain was falling again Tuesday in northern and central
California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency
in seven counties that have been battered by storms and flooding.

In his emergency declaration Monday, Schwarzenegger warned that levees in
the region had been seriously weakened by the storms and were in danger of
breaking. The National Weather Service forecast rain through the weekend.

"There's great vulnerability in the San Joaquin Valley and the Central
Valley," Schwarzenegger said after touring the state's flood operations
center. "We want to do everything we can to make sure that we don't have a
levee break."

He wrote in his declaration that the situation in Amador, Calaveras, Fresno,
Merced, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Stanislaus counties posed "extreme peril
to the safety of persons and property."

The region experienced its rainiest March on record and has had an unusually
wet start to April. The heavy rain and flooding already has caused scattered
levee breaks and mud slides, washed out roads and forced hundreds of
residents from their homes.

"All of our reservoirs are full and we are not able to contain all the
water," Department of Water Resources Deputy Director Les Harder told the
governor. "The river system, and the levee system, is being taxed beyond its
designed capacity."

He said the area was facing "one of the top-five weather seasons on record"
and it had put California on the precipice of disaster.

The declaration directs all state agencies to make staff, equipment and
facilities available to help the affected counties. It also will accelerate
the flow of state money to local response agencies that have been straining
to cope with the flooding and storms, said Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for the
California Office of Emergency Services.

The record spring rainfall follows a wet winter. Schwarzenegger declared
states of emergency in 34 counties in January. In February, he declared
another state of emergency covering the state's fragile levee system.

© 2006 The Associated Press

       
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