The battle for River Junction
Manteca Bulletin Vol. 97, No. 4
4/10/2006
If levees fail, large swath of rural Manteca in jeopardy
Nervous residents and farmers in the River Junction area 10 miles southeast of Manteca
spent the weekend preparing for possible evacuation while keeping an eye on the rising
San Joaquin River.
Across the river, crews were dumping large rocks to shore up the levees protecting the
DVI state prison and rural Tracy farmland. California Conservation Crews — augmented
by prison labor — worked Sunday from dawn to dusk to sand bag and tarp various weak
points on levees protecting the Manteca side.
It is in this rural pocket near the confluence of the Stanislaus and San Joaquin rivers
where the first breaks occurred on Jan. 5, 1997 that eventually ended with a series of
levees failing and the flooding of more than 35 square miles. Levees protecting River
Junction have failed 11 times since 1929.
Ground zero in
flood fight
It is at ground zero in this year’s spring flood watch due to extraordinary high snowpack,
forced early releases from dams that feed the San Joaquin River, and what has been
virtually non-stop spring rains since early March.
Adding to the mix are periods of high tides that can raise the water level in the South
Delta and effectively create a “two-foot” higher hurdle for run-off to deal with putting
more pressure on the levees.
Vernalis — where the two rivers meet — is especially vulnerable now since the Bureau
of Reclamation is kicking up releases from New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus
River. The 2.1 million acre-foot reservoir is at 1.8 million acre feet. But that 300,000
acre-foot cushion could rapidly disappear when the snow melt starts. Given the water
content of this year’s pack and the fact warm weather is expected to come soon to worsen
the situation, the Bureau has started dumping large quantities into the Stanislaus.
Warm winter rains
were problem in 1997
Warm rains in late December of 1996 created a huge mid-winter run-off that officials at
one point thought could force water over the top of New Melones.
Back in 1997, state emergency officials were bracing for the worse.
Secondary levees south of Woodward Avenue and those at the Mossdale bend on the San
Joaquin River showed signs they were nearing failure.
The disaster scenario was quickly drawn up. Failure of the San Joaquin River levee were
new boils seemed to be popping up every hour could send water rushing north to Weston
Ranch where it would reach the first homes in that south Stockton neighborhood within
seven hours.
The same break could inundate nearly a half of Lathrop.
The assessment of the potential damage from the secondary levee south of Woodward
Avenue failure was somewhat better. The Office of Emergency Service envisioned a
break sending water rushing toward the Highway 120 Bypass that has been designed for
conversion into an emergency levee. Once there, it would pour through the McKinley
Avenue undercrossing and spread out threatening the Manteca-Lathrop wastewater
treatment plant, a large chunk of the Airport Way corridor and could possible send two to
three inches of water into the Sierra High neighborhood.
The orders: Plug I-5,
120 Bypass undercrossings
The orders went out: Plug the McKinley Avenue undercrossing of the Highway 120
Bypass and do the same for the Louise Avenue undercrossing of Interstate 5 in Lathrop.
Caltrans crews also would be ready to close the Lathrop Road undercrossing of Interstate
5 at a moment’s notice.
Meanwhile, Weston Ranch residents were advised to prepare for a possible evacuation.
Thousands of families did just that loading up pickup trucks, cars and rental trucks with
as much of their personal belongings as possible. For several days, Weston Ranch
residents were ready to flee.
Reports on CNN made the situation seem worse than it really was. After the news
network reported that on the dawn on Jan. 8, Manteca was an isolated community with 35
square miles flooded.
Flooding turned commute
into 5 mph odyssey
That wasn’t exactly the case as commuters inched at 5 mph down the Highway 120
Bypass, to I-5 and Interstate 205 to head toward the Bay Area.
Although it had been three days since the first break occurred on the Stanislaus River
levee 12 miles south of Manteca, it wasn’t until Jan. 7 that panic set-in. Major breaks
along the San Joaquin River near Wetherbee Lake and Hays Road turned dozens of
square miles into inland lakes. Homes in Wetherbee Lake were under 10 feet of water.
Spreading flood water forced the evacuation of Nile Garden School where the second
emergency command center been set up.
Nearly 2,000 flee
rural Manteca homes
Nearly 2,000 residents fled their rural south Manteca and rural Tracy homes. Dairy
farmers either created dikes to turn dairy barns into islands or else they relied on the
goodness of fellow dairy farmers from as far away as Fresno who headed to Manteca
with empty trailers to help move as many as 20,000 cows.
FFA students from the three high schools pitched in to using pick-ups to haul out animals
and personal belongings.
Telephone circuits went dead due to an overload as darkness started to descend on
Manteca-Lathrop.
It was touch and go for 72 hours before thousands of California Conservation Corps
workers teamed up with volunteers to sand bag boils — areas oozing mud on the land
side of the land side of levees — were able to gain the extra hand.
It had all started in November and December of the previous year. Mother Nature had
dumped a near-record 180 percent of normal snow fall on the San Joaquin River’s upper
watershed by mid-December. The same was true on other rivers feeding into the San
Joaquin including the Stanislaus. New Melones was at 95 percent of capacity since it
rarely had an early run-off.
Then a series of storms dubbed “The Pacific Express” slammed Northern California on
New year’s day dumping an inordinate amount of warm rain.
Manteca barely got wet during the storm but events to the southeast and east were set in
motion as warm rain started melting snow as high as 8,000 feet that eventually set up a
series of 11 down river levee failures that left some rural Manteca homes under water for
nearly three months.
The first break accord on Sturgeon Bend on the Stanislaus River just south of the Airport
Way bridge near the confluence of the San Joaquin River.
Initial flooding in
grape vineyard
The initial farmland flooded was a freshly planted vineyard when the first levee failed at
Jan. 5, 1997 at 1:01 p.m. as the river inched toward a 34-foot crest, some five feet above
flood stage.
Crews from the CCC were sand bagging a boil on the bend when the embankment gave
way and sent chocolate-colored water racing toward the gap and setting in motion a series
of events that led to one levee failure after another.
In the next six days, levees would rupture in 11 places between Caswell State Park south
of Manteca and the Wetherbee Lake area southwest of Manteca.
The Jan. 5 break was followed in hours by others that sent water rising toward Deuel
Vocational Institute east of Tracy and Two Rivers Road south of Manteca.
The first emergency command center was set up at the Union Road fire station about 1.5
miles south of Nile Garden School.
80 homes under
10 feet of water
Wetherbee Lake’s levee failed on Jan. 7 at 2:45 a.m. putting 80 homes in the Islander
Mobile Home Park under 10 feet of water. More gaping holes occurred at Hays and
Perrin roads. Water surrounded Nile Garden School hours after the campus was
evacuated and the emergency command center moved to dry ground at the main Manteca
Fire Department station on Powers Avenue.
The river-fed lake was now seven miles long.
Then came Jan. 8 when those manning the secondary levee south of Woodward Avenue
and the Mossdale Bend indicated they may be losing ground.
Those levees held although OES officials say Manteca and Lathrop came perilous close
to a major disaster.
The levee breaks weren’t over. On Jan. 10, a levee on Paradise Cut broke sending 300
residents on Stewart Tract and nearby farmland fleeing. Stewart Tract is where the
planned community River Isles at Lathrop is being planned.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com