Eastern Sierra - shaping up to be a bad flood year

rock island lines · **Joined:** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:20 pm **Posts:** 487

It looks like a tough year for flooding in the West.

In early February, the Nevada State Railroad Museum (Carson City, NV) suffered flood damage.

And now, the LA Times is reporting that flooding is expected in the eastern Sierra due to the snowpack at 241% of normal (link). The article mentions a few historic sites in the Owens Valley that might be hit:

The Manzanar National Historic Site - a Japanese American internment camp during World War II.
Eastern California Museum in Independence, CA.

Relevant to RYPN, a restored narrow gauge SP steamer is in Independence and tracks are being laid at the ECM for it to run on ( https://carsoncolorado.com/ ).

There doesn't seem to be a contingency plan at ECM for this coming flood. A museum staff member said the following:

LA Times wrote:

[The] administrator of the Eastern California Museum in Independence isn’t taking any chances along a usually docile creek.

“I’ve devised a survival strategy for a worst-case scenario,” he said. “I’m going to jam some boards in a nearby DWP diversion gate, then dig a ditch to divert the water away from the museum and into the streets.”

Well, if this Spring turns out to be cool, hopefully this worst case scenario won't happen.

Just posting this as interesting news, rather than fodder for debate.

crij · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 12:15 am **Posts:** 585

Hopefully for all those in the area it will be a slow melt, especially now that the situation at Oroville Dam has been stabilized, for now but could take years to fix and finally bring up to modern spillway standards.

Could comment on what the environmentalists were predicting about snow in the Sierras, but I digress.

Rich C.