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California's Risk for Floods--Some Factoids

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Why are we so anxious to get a strong flood policy package signed into law this year? Check out these startling flood factoids about the risks that California faces!

Part IV: Flood by the numbers

1: Ranking of Sacramento’s flood risk compared to other metropolitan areas in the U.S.

1 in 4: Chances of a home in a 100 year floodplain flooding within the term of a 30 year mortgage.

High: Rating of the flood risk at the main PCL Office (1107 9th St., Sacramento, CA 95814).

2600: Miles of levees in the Central Valley

1600: Miles of levees for which the State and California taxpayers hold financial liability. (California taxpayers are liable for any damages resulting from failure of State owned levees. In 2005, taxpayers paid $500 million in damages resulting from a 1986 levee failure in rural Northern California)

4.5: The number of times greater the capacity of the Yolo Bypass is compared to the Sacramento River. The Yolo Bypass has a capacity to handle a flow of 500,000 cubic feet per second. That’s reeeeeeeeal big.

$576,000: Median home price in California.

$250,000: Maximum coverage for flood damage to a structure provided by the national flood insurance program.

And finally, to end on a positive note...

Class 1: The City of Roseville’s rating under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA’s) Community Rating System. As of May 2007, Roseville is the only community in the nation with a Class 1 rating. Besides bragging rights, a Class 1 rating provides Roseville property owners a discount of up to forty-five percent on their flood insurance premiums. While it certainly helps that only seven percent of the City is located in a floodplain, it also helps that much of Roseville’s floodplain has not been developed.

Next week: With the Legislature reconvening on August 20th, we sure hope that we know more next week than we know now about the state of negotiations on the flood package! And as soon as we know more, we’ll let you know as well!

Gary Patton is the Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide, nonprofit lobbying organization. For more than thirty years, PCL has fought to develop a body of environmental laws in California that is the best in the United States. PCL staff review virtually every environmental bill that comes before the California Legislature each year. It has testified in support or opposition of thousands of bills to strengthen California's environmental laws and fight off rollbacks of environmental protections.

Posted on August 11, 2007

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