LINDA, Calif, The raging Yuba River, swollen by rains that dealt $270 million in flood devastation to Northern California, smashed a 40-foot hole through an ‘earthen levee, driving 19,000 shocked residents from their homes. The sudden break in the barrier at nightfall Thursday caught the farming communities of Linda and Olive hurts off guard. By midnight, the breach had widened to 100 feet, allowing tons of water a minute to race into residential areas.
The waters rose swiftly, reaching four feet within an hour some places and sending people to the roofs of their cars and homes where they shouted for help and used flashlights to signal to searching helicopters.
By midnight, the muddy waters had risen halfway up many houses in Linda and were still rising,
Authorities ordered all 10,000 residents of flooded Linda to evacuate and the 9,000 people of Olive hurst were also told to leave “as a precaution.”
Many went for shelter to nearby Beale Air Force Base, 120 miles northeast of San Francisco, Others fled to Yuba City and Sutter, finding refuge in churches and schools as well as with relatives, and still others slept in their cars and vans.
The break occurred in peach, pear and almond growing areas a few south of Yuba City, where 64 people died in floods that struck during the Christmas holidays in 1955, ‘The area is heavily populated by Sikh families who trace their roots to India and some of the refugees from the flooding took refuge in Sikh temples.
Bill Helms of the State Flood Control Center in Sacramento said the breach “definitely came as a “surprise,” noting the swiftly flowing river had been running well below the top of the levee.
Seven National Guard helicopters, about 200 boats and dozens of four-wheel drive vehicles searched door to door for trapped residents. The searchlight-equipped choppers plucked a number of people off rooftops.
Some families became separated. “We got people looking for their folks,” said Principal Daniel Barton of Brittan Elementary School where a shelter was set up. ‘One mother was heard screaming hysterically for her children in Linda before officials forced her to leave.
Barton said, “We all were pretty shocked” by the suddenness of the break.
No serious injuries were reported but several people were treated for minor injuries at emergency rooms, said Debra Sonniksen, spokeswoman for the state emergency office
‘Some ranchers on high ground offered flatland stockmen free grazing on their land for animals threatened by the levee waters,
The state emergency office warned valley residents outside the directly affected areas to listen through the night for flood alerts on the radio.
‘The storm that has battered Northern California since Feb, 12 lost much of its punch Thursday but record runoff broke some levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta farming region.
Don Neu deck, director of the state Flood Control Center in Sacramento, said, “the big problem now is the delta. There are a lot of levee breaks down there.”
Bill Medi govich, state OES director, said the storm caused an estimated $220 million in private damages and more that $50 million in damage to public property. He added that 64 homes were destroyed and 600 others were damaged.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 28, 1986
