Tracy Residents Lose Fight Against Flood

TRACY, Calif. — Farmers in this small community worked Saturday to shore up their homes and barns with sandbags and earthen berms after a temporary dam broke, slowly flooding the area.

“It’s been quite a battle, and I think they’re going to lose,” said Mike Padilla, spokesman for the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services.

Residents worked throughout the week to protect their properties and build a temporary dam along the Tom Paine Slough in the San Joaquin River Delta. The dam broke Friday afternoon, spilling water across acres of farmland here.

Officials imposed a mandatory evacuation, but many residents chose to ignore it.

“We’re not going anywhere,” said Karl Jensen, an egg farmer. “We’ve got two four-wheelers, and the gentleman across the street has a helicopter,” should the need to flee become imperative, he said.

Jensen and his family have constructed berms around much of their property, and Saturday Jensen cleared debris from culverts in anticipation of the rising waters.

“At first we were all hard-headed” about preparing for the flood, Jensen said. “After awhile, we decided to do it.”

Jensen said his grandmother left her house, where he and the rest of his family are now waiting out the flood. They removed much of his grandmother’s furniture from the house, because she had reminded them of the severe damage suffered in the 1950 flood.

In all, 28 levees in Central and Northern California have failed since New Year’s Day, causing seven deaths and damaging or destroying nearly 13,000 homes. Overall damage is expected to top $2 billion. Countless farm animals also drowned in the flooding.

Forty-four of California’s 58 counties have been declared disaster areas, and damage to agriculture is so far estimated at $155 million.

Prison crews Saturday continued to work on a levee in Mossdale, west of Manteca--a levee that stands between flood waters and the city of Stockton and surrounding areas.

East of Interstate 5 in Manteca, boat crews planned to try to rescue a herd of cattle stranded on a grassy knoll. Padilla said the cattle, mainly dairy cows, could die of hypothermia if not saved.

In Yuba County, 50 upscale homes, a golf course and farmland covering some 10 square miles remained submerged by flooding from a Jan. 2 Feather River levee break.

Trained counselors from the Yuba County Child Protective Services office lent sympathetic ears to frustrated residents who could see their homes but were prevented by sheriff’s deputies from returning to assess damages.

“There have been a lot of anxious citizens,” said Bill Harris, spokesman for the Yuba County Office of Emergency Services. “Their patience is wearing thin after being out of their homes for 10 days.”

Crews were completing collection of canisters of hazardous materials from the flooded All Pure chemical company. The chemicals, ranging from 1,000-gallon tanks of chlorine to 100-gallon tanks of household chemicals and propane, “landed on people’s roofs, cars and in their yards, so before they could safely re-enter their homes all those canisters had to be removed,” Harris said.