Here Comes the Sun

After a week of storms, the sun has returned.

It will be nice in the day, then in the eve it will be cold. But on Friday eve, the rain comes back and will be with us through Monday.

If you do not have to work, great time to go skiing. There is tons of snow now. There was a dusting of snow on our local hills, too.

The surf will still be a little rough.

The San Lorenzo River has been kept at bay for now. The river took out some steps. This was the only damage reported so far: The Seaside Co. had to hire Granite Construction to go out on the beach and push tons and tons of sand to change the course of the river.

Back in 1955 the river went over its banks and flooded downtown Santa Cruz.

In 1989 we had a storm dump over 18 inches of rain into the river in 24 hours and the river took out part of Soquel Avenue bridge. And at the very same time, the Soquel Creek went over its banks and flooded the town of Soquel with 4-plus feet of mud. Plus the river got so high in Felton it was right up to the old cover bridge and spilling over its banks in several places.

1989 was a very busy weather year for everyone through out the state.

As you might not know, the Army Core of Engineers used to maintain the river. They used to dredge out the river every year. Now they don't. The sand builds up keeps raising the silt level in the river and making it vary dangerous and prone to spilling out of it's banks again and again. The river will spill and go over its banks again when the next 100-year storm comes.

Shoring up the side is a good idea but dredging and having regular maintenance of the river in my opinion is very important and would help keep future flooding to a minimum.