I am from Sacramento, California. This is a city located north of the bay area and is surrounded by many rivers including the Sacramento and American rivers. The most recent and serious hazard in my hometown is flooding. These photos below are taken from 2017 but this happened this year as well on a smaller scale. The reason we have a lot of flooding is because we have had record rainfall after years in a terrible drought. Creeks overflowed which sadly most of the homeless encampments are located around, resulting in needs for emergency housing. According to the LA times, 2021 was the 4th wettest year in history for Nor-Cal. However, the local government has worked hard to manage flooding by updating dams and other types of infrastructure in order to withstand storms. In fact, Sacramento is located near the Sierra Nevada which has seen increased temperatures (likely because of climate change) resulting in more snow runoff along with other problems such as irregular weather patterns. The irregular weather patterns specifically mean Northern California is usually quite dry and has erratic rainfall, with the exception of El-Nino years when heavy storms emerge throughout the area. The problem is because of climate change storms are harder to predict, possibly resulting in more casualties or loss of property.
Sadly, the flood control system is aging and needs an update. However, it is not politically popular to raise taxes, even if it benefits the community through public infrastructure projects. Sacramento has now become one of the riskiest places in the country for flooding. Rising sea levels only makes this worse. Millions of federal dollars have gone into helping rebuild infrastructure that is aging, specifically done by the US army corps of engineers. The result is however that there will no longer be the park/nature area in place. This will prevent erosion in addition. Overall, this year there has been a lot of snow as well as rain. To put this in perspective, University of California Berkeley reported 214 inches of snow. This is one of the “snowiest” winters on record. One example of this is that my uncle’s vacation home in the Sierra Nevada mountains got covered in snow, or snow-mageddon as I call it. It was so bad, and the roads were all closed. Chains weren’t enough and driving around the area was a nightmare according to reports on the news and from those I know. Still overall, temperatures are rising, leading to more flooding in the time being. Flooding is increasingly an issue because instead of snow falling in the Sierra Nevada mountains, more and more it’s turning into rain everywhere. Still, these floods will not end California’s drought.
Overall, the volatile shifts in weather are because of climate change. Although I personally believe the US government should better regulate/have stronger environmental protections, it is not always popular among politicians, particularly those who rely on private donors. This increase in flooding causes billions of dollars in damage. However, I am also currently living in Lodi, California (just 40 minutes away from Sacramento). Flooding similarly is an issue there but because it is not a financially wealthy community it is even more vulnerable to flooding in some ways. Who these hurt are predominantly marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC low-income areas? Inequity is a major factor in why flooding needs to be prevented. Similarly, insurance is not always accessible for everyone due to financial circumstances.
Sources:
Region's Flooding History (saccounty.net)
California rain breaks all-time records - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Rose,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you reflected on the most susceptible communities that are often over looked when it comes to the effects of natural hazards. You also spoke about the political set backs in raising money to protect people and infrastructure from the damages of geohazards. I wonder how much it would cost to implement climate change initiative instead of simply reacting to the hazards.