California Coast & Ocean

Nearby neighbor David Mariscal does worry. He moved in from Brentwood four years ago to be closer to his maintenance job at the Bethel Island golf course. He said he saves on gas and enjoys the friendly community. On a hot day, his home feels serene, standing under tall poplars, amongst potted flowers, patio tables, and pickup trucks. But he said, pointing south, "Look. You come over that bridge. Look how low we are, below the water. And you start thinking about it . . . we're like a sunken island. The only way out of here is over that bridge."

Mariscal hopes that government officials look after the levees sufficiently. Local reclamation districts are largely responsible for maintaining and repairing the levees, with support from the State. Mariscal knows only too well that money is always short, so he revealed his own evacuation plan. "Climb the highest tree," he said, laughing. "There's not an easy way to get out." After the New Orleans fiasco, this was a point brought home to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor toured the Delta by helicopter, declared a levee emergency, and in 2006 pushed through a $5-billion flood protection bond that included $3 billion to improve levees.

To ensure that all levees are safe, however, three times that amount is needed, said David Mraz at the Department of Water Resources.

Should a multi-levee failure occur, the disaster would affect all of California. In Re-envisioning the Delta, U.C. Berkeley engineering professor Raymond Seed estimated that any disaster that caused more than ten to 12 levees to fail could knock out the water supply for two of every three Californians for more than a year. Because the Delta is a basin, salt water from San Francisco Bay would be sucked into it, ruining the water quality and stopping the flow of water south.

Earthquakes are a major threat. The Department of Water Resources reported in 2005 that a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in the Delta region--bigger than the 1966 Donner Pass temblor that registered 6.0 on the Richter scale and swayed Sacramento buildings, but less severe than the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which measured at 7.1--could damage more than 30 levees and cause massive flooding. With six major faults nearby, officials are worried. The United States Geological Survey estimates there is a 62 percent probability of a 6.7 or greater magnitude earthquake in the nearby Bay Area in the next 25 years.

A Cheerful Plea of Insanity
Even these statistics seem to bounce off many Delta denizens. Bonnie Brown, 57, a former bartender who has been living in a houseboat on the Middle River in the center of the Delta for 12 years with her dog and five cats, found her last flood experience about five years ago "very exciting." She said, "The water was just rushing. I mean it was just rushing, fast, fast, fast. I didn't know if I was going to go off my pylons. That would have been a problem."

The boat did not break loose then, and Brown's biggest concern now is the heavy "wave boats" that tear down the river creating large waves for water skiers to jump over. "You get that big three-foot roller coming in. It just rolls and rolls and rolls. It breaks white water on the shore, and it just washes out the levee," she said.

Brown said she originally came from Reno to help a friend restore his boat. She loved the peace and quiet, and bought her own houseboat, where she now gardens, does stained glass art, and entertains her two grandchildren. Sure, the flood danger is real, she said, but she's not budging. "I guess you just have to be crazier than they are," she said, smiling and indicating the world at large around her.

This cheerful plea of insanity is not uncommon for old-time residents. Newcomers seem more bemused. Robert Guinan, who bought a house in Mossdale Landing, a new 2,300-home development just east of Lathrop in the southern Delta, laughs at his own rashness. He not only bought in an area protected by old levees, but got in at the top of the housing market prices. After 20 years of living "all over" the East Bay, the 43-year-old government employee moved to Mossdale Landing two years ago with his wife and three children. At the time he felt his investment was solid. As his mother-in-law was also moving to Mossdale, he got a free nanny, too.