As flood waters rise in California, so does the risk of more levee failures

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, March 15.

On Friday night, as another in a months-long parade of atmospheric rivers pummeled Northern and Central California, a levee meant to contain rising waters from the Pajaro River broke and flooded the small town of Pajaro.

Hundreds of residents were forced to leave their homes. A second levee breach was reported Monday. Work is underway to plug the gaps as another storm system bears down on the region — and even more rain is expected next week.

The river is the dividing line between Santa Cruz County to the north and Monterey County to the south, and the town of Pajaro sits on the southern side of the river.

The vast majority of Pajaro’s residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to the most recent U.S. Census data, which also shows nearly a fifth of people there live in poverty.

As my colleagues Susanne Rust and Ian James reported this week, the devastation in Pajaro was not some unavoidable act of nature, but the result of what happens when aging, inadequate flood controls are neglected and unfixed.

“For decades, the levee was ignored by the federal government — never rising to the status of a fix-worthy project — despite repeated pleas, breaches, floods and even two deaths,” they wrote.

Those deaths occurred in 1995 in a flood that caused an estimated $95 million in damage to the community.

“We feel abandoned sometimes,” Pajaro resident Karla Loreto told Times reporters this week. “Ever since I moved here, I’ve always heard about the 1995 flooding and this view that this part of town is so bad and extremely poor.”

Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo has called on the state to provide aid for Pajaro’s undocumented residents, many of them farmworkers, saying they won’t qualify for federal aid.

“These are our friends, our neighbors, these are people that we really care about, and we know that they’re going to go through some tremendous hardship over the next several months,” he told The Times.

Water management experts told Rust and James that “similar weaknesses” are impacting levees across the Golden State and elsewhere in the U.S.

A 2011 state study of Northern California’s levee system listed more than half of the levees as “high hazard” — meaning they were at elevated risk of failing due to floods or earthquakes. In the years since that study, California’s megadrought has further weakened levees by drying out the soil around them, an engineering expert told the reporters.

“As climate change threatens to intensify and exacerbate extreme weather events — such as flooding and even drought — the unease and desperation of residents and emergency responders in communities near these crumbling systems is growing,” they wrote.

And the risks extend to Southern California, one policy expert explained.

Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, pointed to “a long legacy of very bad flood management and land use choices” throughout the L.A. Basin, where the chance of major flooding is increasing.

“That is an equation for high risk because eventually a flood will come and the economic costs will be immense,” he told The Times.

An independent water researcher and advocate said that what happened to Pajaro’s residents indicates a system of neglect in how government prioritizes its more vulnerable communities.

“You look at where to invest money to protect lives,” she told Rust and Jame. “And we’re not doing that.”

You can read their full story here.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

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L.A. STORIES

With rampant drug use, rising overdose deaths and increased crime on L.A. Metro’s system, more riders are abandoning the public transit system. Since January, 22 people have died on the agency’s buses and trains, most from suspected overdoses. Times reporter Rachel Uranga rode the system and wrote about the conditions, which one train operator called “horror.” Los Angeles Times

L.A. had P-22 (RIP); UCLA had Powell Cat (RIP). The stray — named for the Powell Library — died last week after years prowling the campus. Some students are calling for a memorial statue to honor the beloved feline, who became an unofficial mascot for the campus. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Three weeks after blizzard conditions trapped residents in San Bernardino mountain communities, some are still stranded and waiting for help. And as state officials reopened the roads to the public over the weekend, residents voiced their concern and anger. Los Angeles Times

California has a new pay transparency law, but that doesn’t mean all employers or workers understand how it works. Here’s a guide to the new rules and how to find out if your company is in compliance. CalMatters

California’s student housing crisis is deepening. Recent surveys conducted by the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges show an estimated 417,000 students lack housing security across the three systems. At the same time, efforts to build more housing are threatened with rising construction costs, litigious residents and other roadblocks. Los Angeles Times

CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING

California tribes continue to grapple with a high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The decades-long crisis, as Times reporter Hannah Wiley writes, “traces back to white settler colonialism, a broken foster care system and the forced assimilation of Native children in the state’s punitive boarding schools.” Los Angeles Times

Uber, Doordash and other gig economy giants got a big win this week as a state appeals court upheld most of Prop 22, reversing an earlier court’s decision to invalidate it. The 2021 ballot measure was championed by rideshare and delivery companies in response to a 2019 state law that required many gig workers be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. Los Angeles Times

The operators of an upscale Westside care center for elderly residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia face multiple charges for the COVID deaths of 13 residents and an employee. Silverado Beverly Place failed to follow health protocols, prosecutors say, leading to an outbreak at the facility in March 2020. Los Angeles Times

AND FINALLY

Today’s California landmark is from Gregory Kubelek of Santa Rosa: the “visually and historically significant” Palisades mountains in Napa County.

Marcia Kreutzmann and Abigail the dog look up at The Palisades in Napa County in 2005.

(Courtesy Gregory Kubelek)

Gregory writes:

What are California’s essential landmarks? Fill out this form to send us your photos of a special spot in California — natural or human-made. Tell us why it’s interesting and what makes it a symbol of life in the Golden State. Please be sure to include only photos taken directly by you. Your submission could be featured in a future edition of the newsletter.

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