Storm surge brings rising costs to Lodi, county
Since last weekend, Lodi and surrounding areas have been experiencing a heavy amount of rainfall. Storm surges have resulted in rising rivers and rising costs, as local governments deal with the aftermath of heavy winds, falling trees and flooding.
According to San Joaquin County Public Works Deputy Director Jim Stone, the main area the county is experiencing additional costs is with overtime. He said that through Thursday morning, the county had accumulated at least 125 hours of overtime costs related to the storm.
Stone said that once the storm is over, they will be able to sit down and determine the actual amount of costs the county has incurred. The public works department plans for these events in their annual budget based on an estimate of the amount of rainfall estimated each year, Stone said.
“Normally, we know there is going to be a certain number of days every year that it’s going to rain, and we’re going to have do a certain amount of overtime. So we do have that in our budget,” Stone said.
In the case of a major flood or disaster, the county would seek special emergency funds.
Stone said the real cost is other projects that would be getting worked on are sitting idle on the rainy days.
According to Stone, 16 roads in the county were closed due to flooding and opened back up Thursday. He said the public needs to be aware that when there are heavy rains they should expect to have water in the roadway, and they should drive carefully and with caution. Stone said the county does its best to get adequate signage out but wanted drivers to be aware of potential dangers during heavy rains and flooding.
The recent rainfall has had a financial impact on Galt as well. According to Donna Settles, Galt’s public Information officer, the public works department has spent $8,000 in sandbag station supplies and $3,000 in extra labor during the rainy weather while parks and recreation has spent $3,750 for the removal of fallen oak trees.
Local bodies of water have risen to dangerously high levels during the recent storms and flooding remains a concern, according to San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services Director of Operations Michael Cockrell.
Cockrell said that the Mokelumne River will remain running extremely high because the Cosumnes River, which is located above the Mokelumne, is flowing high and the Camanche Dam is releasing large amounts of water into the Mokelumne. Cockrell also noted that yesterday and today will be the peak of the Delta tides, which will slow the Mokelumne River from entering into the Delta.
On Thursday evening, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office reported that they were assisting the Office of Emergency Services in locating a possible levee break on the Mokelumne in the 20200 block of Windwood Drive in Woodbridge.
However, they did not find a break and instead determined that water was flowing over the levee bank in a small area.
Water was contained to a vineyard on the property so there were no road closures. One home was also potentially threatened, however there was no threat to life from this incident.
Cockrell said local agencies will be patrolling levees in the Thornton area and Staten Island looking for trouble spots.
With all the high water levels, Lodians will be relieved to know that the rain is expected to clear up for a few days according to Accuweather.com meteorologist Ken Clark.
Clark said there is no expectation of rain until early next week, with a slight chance of showers Saturday night. However, Clark said that after that, the weather will move back into a wetter pattern and he is expecting one or more significant storms starting as early as Tuesday.
“The amount of rain we’ve received is not very typical. This has been a very stormy pattern. It certainly is not typical of the last four or five years,” Clark said.
While many may say that this heavy rainfall signifies the end of the drought, some beg to differ. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 40 percent of the state is no longer in a drought and a large portion of the state showed no signs of unusual dryness at all.
Cockrell disagrees, saying that while there has been a significant amount of rainfall the state is still very much in a drought. He cited several reasons why.
“A drought isn’t one thing. It really isn’t just full dams,” Cockrell said. “The drought is trees and crops that have been damaged that will take a while to turn around. The drought is the farmers who have to sell off cattle because there wasn’t enough grass to feed them. The drought is the ground water because it’s been so dry that farmers, businesses and families had to pump more water out of the ground and rely on surface water. I’ve always heard for every year of drought it takes about five years or 10 to gain that back.”
Cockrell said that he recently asked the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors to extend the local emergency for the drought, which has been imposed since January 2014.