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Delta debate rages five years later; Some say Jones Tract disaster played key role

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 3, 2009 at 8:17 am

From Stockton’s Record:

Engineer Tom Rosten drove the winding levee road three times that June afternoon. The next morning, Rosten, still wearing his bathrobe, answered the telephone. Thirty-five minutes later he stood at the edge of a 200-foot abyss where the road he had traveled hours earlier had crumbled away and torrents of water spewed onto farmland.

“When I got up there and saw what had happened, I said, ‘Oh, my God,’” Rosten said. “There’s just nothing we can do.”

Indeed, at that point it was a question only of how long it would take the water to spread across Upper and Lower Jones tracts, flooded five years ago today. More than 12,000 acres of farmland was swamped, dozens of farm workers were displaced, and only a mad rush saved Highway 4 and prevented floodwaters from spreading to the south.

Read more from The Record by clicking here.

June 3, 2009 · Filed Under Levees, Other Delta Issues

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