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Heat, drought, floods, bad air: Will California’s Central Valley survive climate change?

Floods

Opinion: We’ve seen the flooding in California. Will we move to higher ground?

The slow-motion rebirth of Tulare Lake has inundated farm fields and threatened levees, homes and whole towns. Yet the flooded crops and tenuous levees at Tulare Lake represent only a fraction of the statewide and nationwide landscape now subject to greater floods of the global warming era. Here’s how bad it can get: In Houston, one home initially valued at …

Flood

California fights to save city, prison in peril from rising Tulare Lake floodwaters

Central Valley Californians threatened by this year’s massive Sierra snowmelt will receive much-needed state funding as they rush to raise the Corcoran levee, a critical piece of flood control infrastructure that protects the city of Corcoran and its sprawling prison complex from the rising waters of Tulare Lake. “Knowing that we can fully fund this Corcoran levee reinforcement so that …

Acres of L.A. County sewage sludge threaten to contaminate Tulare Lake floodwaters

Here at the western edge of the Tulare Lake Basin dwells a smelly industrial site the size of 150 football fields. “When the southwest corner of Tulare Lake floods, thousands of tons of L.A. County sewage sludge, containing toxic heavy metals, will become part of the mix in the newly formed lake,” said Tom Frantz, a retired schoolteacher and environmental …

California town engulfed in floodwater. But residents fear what will happen if they flee

Juan Espinoza, 21, walks around the flooded property where he lives in Allensworth, a small hamlet in rural San Joaquin Valley. Estrada said she’s worried that water from a coming storm could climb higher toward the doorstep of her mobile home. “Let’s get some water flowing.” The 15 men, who belong to Ventura Crew 2, started digging, piling mud by …

After homes flood in Tulare County, decision to pave over creek for new houses draws blame

Floodwaters cover part of a sign for a house at a new development, Hillside Estates, in Woodlake, Calif., on Wednesday. Keylan Liles, who has lived in a house on West Cajon Avenue for decades, said he’d “never seen anything like this.” “Then they built that,” he said, pointing to the new development across the street, which he said replaced orchards …

Flooded

California deals with surging rivers, sliding rocks and flooded towns as storm passes

Herbeto Estrada rescues his two birds from his home along Salinas Road in Pajaro, Calif., on Tuesday. The increased flow from the spillway is adding more water to the river and tributaries below, both of which are already full from the last storm, Monteiro said, adding that there is “flood concern.” An orchard worker clears storm drains on a Porterville …

Levee breach in Monterey County triggers massive flooding, prompts evacuations, rescues

Floodwaters cover most of Pájaro Valley, Calif., after an atmospheric river storm broke through a nearby levee. Monterey County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Hampson said many of the same people had been evacuated in January, when the river got high. “This next atmospheric river event is not looking like it’s going to be as strong, but when you have a flood …