Assembly Takes Up Flood Relief Issues

SACRAMENTO —  The state Assembly on Tuesday began a bipartisan effort to help victims of this month’s devastating Northern California floods and boost the state’s flood-fighting capabilities.

Among the measures introduced in a special session of the Legislature convened to deal with flood damage was a recommendation to make $170 million available to the state’s leading flood-fighting agency, the Department of Water Resources.

The bill, AB 3X by Assemblymen Peter Frusetta (R-Tres Pinos) and Jim Morrissey (R-Anaheim), would take effect immediately after being passed by two-thirds of both legislative houses and signed by the governor. The funds would become part of the 1997-98 state budget and would be made up from other proposed expenditures, a Frusetta aide said.

Another bill, by Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced), would provide property and income tax relief for flood victims where a disaster area has been declared by Gov. Pete Wilson or President Clinton.

A third measure, by Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), also would provide property tax relief for those who suffered losses in the path of flooded rivers and river bypasses. Losses to counties from property tax flood relief would be reimbursed by the state.

Forty-four counties have been declared eligible for disaster assistance as a result of flooding from a week of warm rains and melting snow beginning on Jan. 1. Eight deaths and damage estimated at more than $1.5 billion resulted from a series of levee breaks stretching hundreds of miles through Northern and Central California.

Tuesday was the second straight day on which flood control officials declared no new outbreaks of flooding on the San Joaquin and Sacramento River systems, although work continued on shoring up levees still under heavy pressure from rivers carrying up to 12 times their normal flow for this time of year, the officials said.

Also at the Capitol on Tuesday, Assembly members and state senators heard federal, state and local officials declare that the state’s major rivers require additional levee protection at isolated locations.

But for the most part, the officials agreed, the system of dams, reservoirs and rivers leading out of the Sierra to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta performed well under a weeklong deluge that by some measures was the worst in modern times.

Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico) said at the hearing that his constituents complained that repair work on a levee break that caused evacuation and three deaths on the Feather River appeared to involve plugging the breach with the same material that gave way in the flood.

“We are not through with the storm season,” Richter said, and residents are worried about the waters rising again.

Officials should explain their levee-repair methods to concerned residents, Richter said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Flood Toll

As the California flood threat recedes, here is the preliminary toll:

FLOODED LAND: 290 square miles

DESTROYED: Homes: 2,536; mobile homes: 566

MINOR DAMAGE: Homes: 13,376; mobile homes: 1,945

SCOPE: 44 counties declared in state of emergency

Counties: 44 declared in state of emergency.

DEATHS: 3 in Yuba County, 2 in Mariposa County and 1 each in Shasta, Trinity and Sacramento counties

MAJOR HIGHWAYS STILL CLOSED: California 1 near San Luis Obispo/Monterey County line; U.S. 50 between Riverton and Strawberry in the Sierra Nevada; U.S. 395 at California 108

SOURCES: State Office of Emergency Services, Caltrans.