Rivers jumped their banks and cut new channels. Malakoff Diggins was one example, in which silt runoff purportedly raised the river beds in the valley below by an additional two feet. The 1862 flood was a very large flood that filled the Sacramento Valley flood basins. Although it was described as unprecedented by early settlers, most had lived in California for less than 15 years. Historical accounts from Spanish missions and Native Americans describe an earlier valley-filling flood in 1805. Citizens fled by any means possible, yet the inauguration ceremony took place at the capital building anyway, despite the mounting catastrophe. The San Ramon Valley was one sheet of water from hill to hill as far as the eye could see. I dont think the city will ever rise from the shock, I dont see how it can.. When the floodwaters entered the area from higher ground in the east, the levee acted like a dam, holding the water in the city. Ranchers there had been praying for rain for two decades. The county never recovered from that disastrous flood.. All of the fresh Sierra snow melted, turning frozen creeks into raging rivers as the water poured downstream. 4). On January 10, 1862, the levees around Sacramento broke, flooding the city and forcing the newly elected governor, Leland Stanford, to travel by rowboat to the flooded capitol building for his soggy inauguration. In the Central Valley, flooding was up to 30 feet deep. A man named L.H. [20] In Sacramento, nearly 10 inches (250mm) of rain fell in an 11-day period. Residents reported seeing houses, horses, poultry, cattle, barns, bridges, camps, stores, and saloons swept downstream. Accustomed to starting over, the survivors rebuilt homes, roads and farms. The Great Flood of 1862 was fueled by a large snowpack and a series of atmospheric rivers rivers of dense moisture in the sky. [46] Several people were trapped in their cars and had to be rescued. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. The heavy rains also triggered landslides and mud slides on Californias steep hillsides. [1] 48 counties were declared disaster areas, including all 46 counties in northern California. Sixty-six inches of rain fell in Los Angeles that year, more than four times the normal annual amount, causing rivers to surge over their banks, spreading muddy water for miles across the arid landscape. Keeping the issue alive in the mind of Californians is important because drought, wildfires and earthquakes get all the attention, Swain said. Streams and rivers emanating from the Sierra Nevada Geologic evidence shows that truly massive floods, caused by rainfall alone, have occurred in California every 100 to 200 years. Sacramento, 100 miles up the Sacramento River from San Francisco, was (and still is) precariously located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers. The Ventura, Santa Ynez, and Santa Clara Rivers also flooded. On December 9th, a warm atmospheric river, or Pineapple Express, hit the region with a fury. The 1861-1862 Floods: Informing Decisions 150 Years Later Sacramento remained underwater for months. Copyright 2023Water Education Foundation.
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