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The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of California, Oregon, and Nevada, inundating the western United States and portions of British Columbia and Mexico. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows that began in Oregon in November 1861 and continued into January 1862.
Flood control structures spared parts of Los Angeles County from destruction, while Orange and Riverside Counties experienced more damage. [15] The flood of 1938 is considered a 50-year flood. [16] It caused $78 million of damage ($1.69 billion in 2023 dollars), [16] making it one of the costliest natural disasters in Los Angeles' history. [17]
The history of Sacramento, California, began with its founding by Samuel Brannan and John Augustus Sutter, Jr. in 1848 around an embarcadero that his father, John Sutter, Sr. constructed at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers a few years prior. Sacramento was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border.
California has sought to control its rivers for 172 years, and the storms will only get worse.
During the 1800s, seasonal flooding would limit travel and access between cities in the Sacramento River valley. Destructive floods in 1862 and 1878 prompted various flood control measures, including the 11.5-mile (18.5 km) long Tule Canal (completed in 1864) along the eastern edge of the present-day Yolo Bypass; and the Elkhorn Weir (1897 ...
The Great Flood of 1862 from December 1861 to January 1862 caused the worst flooding in Sacramento's history. In 1861, Governor Leland Stanford, who was inaugurated in early January 1862, traveled to his inauguration in a rowboat.
Consequently, levee breaches on the Sacramento and the flooding of the Yolo Bypass inundated many acres of farmland. The Truckee River also had near-record flows with a peak stage height of 13.13 feet and a flow rate of 14,900 cfs at Farad (well above flood stage) which flooded Downtown Truckee .
The Bee answers reader questions about recent Sacramento storms.