Redding declares emergency in anticipation of El Niño, makes plans to clear congested drainage ditch
The cyclical weather event is expected to bring heavy rainfall to Northern California this winter, something especially worrisome for those who experienced severe impacts from last year’s flooding.
The Redding City Council voted last night to declare a local emergency ahead of the expected impacts of this year’s El Niño.
El Niño is a climate pattern that disrupts normal weather conditions, leading to warmer-than-average temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. In Northern California, El Niño is predicted to bring warmer temperatures and heavy rainfall this winter, which could lead to severe flooding. This year’s El Niño is particularly noteworthy because it has been projected to break records for its strength, leading to some calling it Super El Niño.
The chance of increased precipitation this winter is especially alarming for many in Redding given the flooding that occurred after last year’s brief but heavy rainfall during the holidays, which caused major damage to residents’ homes and businesses.
Several community members who continue to be impacted by the damage from last year’s flooding spoke at Tuesday night’s council meeting, urging the city to take proactive steps ahead of this winter’s storms. Some were affected by the flooding of the Henderson Ditch, a manufactured drainage ditch west of Bechelli Lane that overflowed during the December storm last year and caused severe property damage to some residents’ homes.
One community member mentioned how council member Dr. Paul Dhanuka told him some time ago that he hoped the council could get the state to pay attention to smaller, less populated and influential counties. The commenter used that sentiment to make his point about flood preparation.
“We represent those folks who are that small group,” the community member said, “and we are begging, we are imploring you, please treat us with the respect you ask the state to treat Shasta County.”
Declaring an emergency, interim City Manager Michael Webb explained, allows the city to more efficiently and proactively prepare for the anticipated heavy rain by easing the processes needed to purchase equipment, work with contractors when necessary and clean storm drains. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office also issued a state of emergency last month ahead of El Niño, which Webb mentioned in his discussion of the agenda item.
“We’re going to continue to lay out our plan to make sure we’re doing everything we can to minimize or potentially eliminate any impacts from the heavy winter anticipated,” Webb said.
Interim City Attorney Mary Anne Wagner explained that there will be opportunities for the council to check in regularly on if the emergency declaration is still needed as time goes on.
In an agenda item separate from the emergency declaration, the council discussed the concerns of the residents affected by the overflow of the Henderson Ditch last year, saying it plans to continue working on solutions for the long term — though hopefully in tandem with the county, council member Erin Resner added.
Community members, who also spoke to the county board about the issue earlier this month, raised concerns Tuesday night that the ditch still hasn’t been cleared since the flooding occurred last year, leaving them vulnerable to a repeat of the incident that’s still affecting homes in the region.
Information provided in the council’s agenda packet indicates the complexity of drainage management in the Bechelli Lane area, explaining that both the city and county have “contended through the years” that the Henderson Ditch is private property and therefore public entities have no maintenance responsibilities.
Nevertheless, the city said it plans to contract CAL FIRE to clean the Henderson Ditch starting next week in preparation for winter rains. It’s something that may be a consideration periodically in the future to ensure the ditch doesn’t overflow again, staff said.
Resner asked community members at the meeting to continue putting pressure on the county to help with the issue because “it will take everyone working together to find a long-term solution,” she said.
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I’m glad to see that they are taking it seriously , I have been watching reports on the warmer ocean making ocean rise along with creating more and stronger storms and the Kelvin wave raising the tide even more when coinciding with King Tides. Seeing so much damage to S.Cal beach areas is sad and the storms hitting there are moving inland and wreaking havoc in Nevada, Utah ,New Mexico, Colorado and other states, never mind the many countries worldwide getting monster storms due to changed ocean currents altering weather patterns . I think assuming that because we aren’t “on the coast” means that we have no worries is naive and foolhardy. This El Nino IS going to be bad, disregard the power of Mother Nature at your own peril!
So if the city didn’t do this, and there is a major flooding event, the chorus here would be “They knew this was coming and did NOTHING!1!1”. Very predictable.
Selah
If Henderson Ditch is indeed private, and the affected properties don’t take action, the City or County needs to step in – as they are planning to do. The property owners should then be billed – as many municipalities are doing with non compliant properties with hazardous fire fuel.
If the property is privately owned, it’s not, Redding should be paying a use fee. I wonder how they would feel about that.
Why exactly should a private landowner be billed for maintaining a drainage ditch serving the public?
The Henderson ditch is a “catchment”. It receives only 35% of the hundred year flow. The other 65% is received from 270 acres throughout the city as far away as old Kmart. The Henderson ditch, receives ALL THIS WATER from not only the city, but also 3350 of pipe from interstate 5 runoff…all public record. You tell me who is responsible? The Henderson ditch isn’t even on the master stormwater drain plan for the entire Redding area!! More to come…
“The Redding City Council voted last night to declare a local emergency ahead of the expected impacts of this year’s El Niño. ”
Sounds more like the City Council is getting ready to approve cushy government contracts to certain entities and people who have vested interests in filling their pockets – and El Niño is the perfect catalyst for that purpose.
So…. Doing the things we all know need doing requires we declare an emergency? If that doesn’t point to bad management, what does? The real emergency is that we’ve “locked in” spending to cover everything except what we really need. How about we do the hard work of unwinding decades of building massive compensation packages, social service programs, property development programs and the like? If we can’t afford basics like infrastructure, law enforcement, power and water, we certainly can afford to continue to spend what we’ve grown accustomed to spending.
💯 percent correct
You said it like I couldn’t. Thank You
There is a laundry list of reasons for preemptively declaring a state of emergency. Under state law, a non-exhaustive list of those reasons include early authority to mobilize resources, streamlined permitting and decision-making, and coordinated response with state and federal agencies.
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The state has also preemptively issued a state of emergency. Under the Emergency Services Act, the Governor can suspend statutes or regulations that hinder emergency response, including proactive preparation, and prioritize funding to accomplish those efforts.
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It would be bad management to fail to seek those preparatory and streamlining advantages and funding in the face of a high-likelihood natural disaster. Your knee-jerk assumptions are off the mark.
I’ve been closely monitoring this super el nino given the incredible destruction I witnessed in ’97-98, but the latest forecasts do not show an impending disaster for Redding, or Shasta County. Instead, scientists say southwestern states including parts of California south of Tahoe are the ones staring down this particular barrel expecting 2-2.5x times normal rainfall while the northstate is looking to shrug it off like the 2015-2016 super el nino with 65% more rain than average (a normal el nino rainfall)
A super El Niño event is almost certain—it’s already baring its teeth. That binary will-it-or-won’t-it-happen decision node is nearly in the books. You’re right that the projections are that it will hit the Southwest hardest and may spare us completely. However, the latitude to which the deluge events will extend northward are far less certain than the certainty of the El Niño itself. Best to prepare now and be pleasantly surprised if it spares us.
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The eastern border of my property in Palo Cedro is the middle of North Cow Creek. Last year the creek overtopped the bank and I incurred major damage to my fences, an outbuilding that I use as an office, and my raised-bed vegetable and flower gardens. My house is situated at a good elevation, but many of my neighbors’ houses flooded, including my next-door neighbors’ house for the second year in a row. They spent the summer jacking the house up and adding three feet of foundation. They’re still not back in the house.
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Nobody is hoping more than me and my neighbors on the creek that the projections it will bypass us are correct.
Esteban, we will agree that it would be worse than bad management to not make the best of what your bad management has given you. But it’s still bad management. Good management would see the problems that poorly crafted laws, regulations and policies create and fix them. Bad management pats itself on the back for finding a way to survive the problems it creates.
I understand your point, but a lot of what you think is bad management is at the state and federal levels and can’t be altered locally. Our local government officials have to operate within the regulatory and funding contexts that are handed down to them—they can’t unilaterally fix those issues.
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Some of our local leaders have—in the face of that reality—chosen to disengage. In this case, that would entail not setting the table to get funding help in the face of a potential natural disaster. That would clearly be a case of cutting off our nose to spite our face—reckless and stupid, not superior management.
Sounds like they’re being proactive toward the goal of preparedness to me. Seeing as none of us can truly know yet what’s coming our way this winter, would you prefer they do nothing? There are a myriad of reasons for counties and states to declare a state of emergency. Even if you’re correct about wasteful spending, hindsight isn’t going to stop flooding, etc. Best to get all the help we can, while we still can.