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When the rain and the river wouldnt stop
FEBRUARY 27, 1986 2:00 PM L. PIERCE CARSON
The flood of the century turned the Presidents Day holiday into
a soggy nightmare for NapaValley residents. A rampaging Napa River
and its rain-swollen tributaries swept through the
Napa Valley last week taking lives, destroying vineyards and
homes worth millions and turningthousands of local residents lives
upside down.
Building for nearly one week, the lO0-year storm turned out to
be the flood that engineers andproponents of the ill-fated Napa
River flood control project of the 1970s warned Napans about
A wave of tropical Pacific storms assaulted northern California,
dumping between 12 and 28inches of rain throughout the valley.
Babbling winter brooks became raging torrents as stormsintensified,
causing tremendous runoff from already saturated hillsides.
The valley's catch basins filled to capacity, overflowed and
poured millions of gallons of
sediment-heavy rainwater into waterways already filled to
overflowing.
The scope of last week's flood took all by surprise, although
emergency officials were on thejob when the first indications of
trouble lapped at area doorsteps that early holiday morning.
Not even flood-seasoned oldtimers predicted the water would rise
as rapidly and as high as itdid. Reports of the river rising an
inch an hour as well as a wall of water coming down NapaCreek were
not exaggerations.
At the height of the disaster, the Napa River crested at an all
time high of 30 feet, five feetabove flood stage in Napa.
Upvalley, the river crested at 20 feet, seven feet above the
flood warning mark.
Without stretching the imagination, last week's flood could be
categorized as the mostdisruptive natural disaster to affect Napa
only since the 1906 earthquake and the mostdevastating flood here
since the winter of 1896-97.
Napa County was one of the three counties hardest hit by the
series of storms and subsequentinundation.
As many as 7,000 people throughout the county had to be
evacuated from homes andbusinesses. Emergency shelters quickly
opened to house the storm-tossed refugees.Volunteers by the
hundreds gathered to wrap chilled-to-the-bone evacuees in warm
blanketsand provide them with nourishment. Others opened up their
homes and served up hot mealsand spirits. Local hoteliers opened up
their accommodations to the homeless and restaurantsand caterers
quickly volunteered to feed evacuees.
For a time, the quality of life as Napa Valley residents have
come to know it, was swept awayin a muddy torrent.
By late Tuesday, the worst was over, although heavy showers
continued sporadically for twomore days.
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It was only then that area residents could return to both homes
and businesses to assess thedamage damage that is expected to top
the $100 million mark as catastrophic lossescontinue to be totted
up.
There was another kind of loss as well last week. Three people
died during the floodstorm and27 people were injured. At least 245
homes were destroyed by turbulent waters, about 120businesses,
mostly in Napa, were severely damaged as well and 25,000 Pacific
Gas andElectric customers were without power or gas or both for
lengthy periods.
Hundreds of homes and automobiles were damaged and personal
effects by the ton werescrapped as residents attempted to dry out
from last week's devastating storm.
Damage to local agriculture was estimated at $20 million. As
much as 20 percent of valleyvineyards were damaged and possibly
lost to production this year.
Leisure time pursuits also will be affected in Napa for some
time. Damage to parks alone in thecity has been estimated close to
$2 million, closing some of them for months to come.
President Ronald Reagan and Gov. George Deukmejian issued
national and state disasterdeclarations, qualifying local residents
for financial flood relief.
Flood losses are enormous. Local, state and federal governments
have been quick to offer aid.
But it is the knowledge that neighbors, co-workers, friends and
more often than notcomplete strangers extended helping hands that
has kept Napa Valley's flood victims going
