How much rain has fallen on us so far this winter? It’s rained enough already that some folks are comparing this year to some of the really big wet ones from recent memories, like 1951, 1986 and 1995. Last month was the wettest January on record.
What’s the best way to measure all our rain? Storms, like this week’s and last week’s overpower our backyard rain gauges and totals vary all across our Russian River watershed. Venado and Cazadero, on our coastal ridge, will easily top 100 inches this year and most points up and down the river’s valleys have been soaked by 60 inches to date, with 6-8 weeks left in the normal rain season.
Another way to measure the rain is by dollars. This week the county Board of Supervisors voted to extend the official declaration of a local emergency due to winter storms. To date, January and February storms have caused $10.8 million in road damages. Twenty-one living structures have been red tagged or yellow tagged, with estimated repair costs of $866,000.
In a county with just $75 million set aside for year-round road maintenance, this winter’s rains are adding up to be real budget busters. The county is applying for California Disaster Assistance but so are 49 other counties. One of those counties is Butte County, home to the failing Lake Oroville Dam where repairs now exceed $200 million. Some of these bigger costs are expected to be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)
The county was forced to open its Emergency Operations Center in early January and also manned two emergency shelters when the Russian River twice exceeded flood stage in Guerneville.
County administrator Shirley Bratton this week requested state assistance from the governor’s office for a portion of $8 million in accumulated storm damages.
Municipalities, water companies and other utilities also have suffered storm costs and outages. It is estimated that individual vehicle damages due to flooding, pothole attacks and rainy accidents average $700 for every vehicle owner in the county.
And then there are the leaky roofs, fallen trees, clogged ditches and washed out driveways. Sometimes the best relief is to watch the TV news about the midwest and east coast snow storms with car-high snow drifts. At least you don’t have to shovel rain like you do snow.
Bad weather keeps costing us more and more. During last year (2016) alone, there were 15 natural weather disasters in the U.S. that cost $1 billion or more each, ranging from wildfires to hurricanes, tornadoes and droughts.
Not that we need to fear any droughts right now, but California’s recent multi-year drought cost $2.7 billion and the temporary or long term loss of 21,000 jobs.
Another way to look at this is that storms, bad weather and droughts have become a permanent line item in local government budgets. Sonoma County has 1,380 miles of roads to maintain, with 328 bridges. Even with good weather, it is estimated to cost $56 million a year to keep up with normal repairs. The bad news is the county has only been spending half that total and the really bad news is this winter’s weather is beating the hell out of what’s left.
It’s well known how poor the county’s roads have become due to recent years of deferred maintenance. With winters like this one, other parts of local governments’ budgets may now get raided to make up the difference. (Dare anyone mention pension reforms, again?)
But back at the rain gauges, all this moisture promises fully recharged aquifers and reservoirs and happy farmers. Lake Sonoma has more water behind Warm Springs Dam than at any other time in its 40-year history.
Looking for a “bottom line” to all this wetness, it looks like all the recent rains are washing away our local rainy day funds with too many potholes left unfilled.
