N. California Gets a Break in the Weather

SACRAMENTO â€”  Cold, mostly dry weather is allowing water officials to ease pressures on rivers still running high almost two weeks after a deluge of tropical downpours triggered massive flooding in Northern California.

Releases from mountain dams have been reduced by small degrees but enough so that “waters are very slowly receding� and reducing the strain on weak levees, mostly on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, a state official at flood control headquarters said Monday.

There were no levee breaks during the weekend and levee repair crews were, for the first time, getting the upper hand on keeping rivers within their banks, said Jason Fanselau, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Two levee ruptures that led to widespread flooding--in Sacramento and San Joaquin counties--had been plugged with hundreds of thousands of tons of rock and sand as of Sunday, Fanselau said.

But state flood control spokesman Bill Draper said there were more than 30 levee breaks that lay ahead for crews and landowners to repair, along with widespread cleanup of farmlands and residential neighborhoods scattered along about 200 miles of the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys.

On Monday, some residential areas and thousands of acres of farmland, mostly just south of Sacramento and in and around Modesto, remained flooded, local officials said.

To grapple with the costly aftermath, the state Senate met Monday and the Assembly was to do so Tuesday in response to a call by Gov. Pete Wilson for a special legislative session to deal with the flooding.

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) said tax relief and other assistance to storm victims will be among the issues to receive first consideration. He ruled out raising any taxes to help finance recovery efforts.

Measures adopted by simple majority votes in a special legislative session and signed by Wilson can take effect quickly, in contrast to most bills passed during regular session that take effect at the start of the next year.

Last week, state Office of Emergency Services officials estimated flood damage in 44 counties at $1.6 billion, but said the total was fluctuating as counties reassessed losses.

As of a tally Monday, emergency officials said, more than 4,000 homes and businesses were known to have been destroyed by flooding; more than 10,300 had been damaged, and overall 70,000 acres of homes and farms had been flooded.

Rain fell Sunday over flooded areas, but had little effect on river or reservoir levels, state officials said, and cold temperatures were holding snowfall in place in the Sierra, preventing dangerous runoffs.

However, indicative of lasting effects from the deluge that began Jan. 1, officials in Yuba County reported finding the body of another victim, raising the flood-related toll to eight confirmed deaths.

Marian Anderson, 56, listed as missing since Jan. 2, died in the path of a torrent near her home that escaped through a broken levee on the Feather River at Olivehurst, 40 miles north of Sacramento, Yuba County Undersheriff Gary Finch said.

She was the wife of the region’s top flood control official, who was at his office at the time, dealing with the rising waters, neighbors said.

Times staff writer Carl Ingram contributed to this story.