The California Department of Water Resources opened its flood operations center Saturday.
Jon Ericson is chief of the department's Hydrology and Flood Operations office.
"We coordinate all the different information that we receive with regard to weather and hydrologic conditions, reservoir operations and then what we try to do is disseminate that out through our California Data Exchange Center or any means we can," says Ericson. "And then we also receive information from people who may have an issue and then try to direct resources to that."
He says most of the major reservoirs in the state currently have capacity to store a lot of runoff. The operations center will coordinate with the local, state and federal agencies to release some of that water.
Ericson says their goal is to avoid too much stress on any one part of the system. That could mean a lot more water into the Yolo Bypass.
"If stages become high at I Street near Sacramento, then we would look at operating the Sacramento Weir which is over in West Sacramento," says Ericson.
Ericson says the weir would only be opened if the Sacramento River reaches 30 feet, which he says is not in the immediate forecast.
Follow us for more stories like this
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
Donate Today
