Good morning. California is trying to tame the effects of flooding in ways both immediate and long-term. |
 | | Flooding in Watsonville, Calif., on Tuesday.Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times |
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After three years of historic drought in California, a deluge of unrelenting rainfall and high wind has been inundating much of the state's coastline, farmland and valleys. |
The fallout from weeks of storms is dramatic and widespread. Residents of the town of Montecito, in Santa Barbara County, were ordered to evacuate because of floods and the danger of mudslides. Rivers overflowed, trees were uprooted and ocean waves destroyed homes and businesses. Even in the Los Angeles area, usually sunny and parched, streets were flooding. While the state should receive some dry weather today, forecasters said, another wave of rain is expected on Saturday. |
California has a history of floods: In 1862, the governor-elect took a rowboat to his own inauguration because Sacramento was so deep in floodwaters. The intense storms now reflect, in part, a warming climate, which brings a heightened risk of storms that are more intense and destructive. The enduring question in California of how to tame floods — or find ways to ease the negative effects of ferocious storms — has a new urgency. |
"For 20 years or longer, policymakers in California have been trying to bring the state along," my colleague Shawn Hubler, a National correspondent based in Sacramento, told me. "But it hasn't happened fast enough. Now climate change has caught up with us." |
In today's newsletter, I will explain how California is fighting the effects of storms in ways that are both immediate and long-term. |
 | | Cars driving through a flooded road in Los Angeles last week.Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times |
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The storms, which began late last month, have not only disrupted daily life in California for weeks, but have also endangered public safety. At least 18 people have died. |
Many residents have little experience dealing with floodwaters, or have forgotten about how to deal with them because drought has been so persistent — a gap in knowledge that can be fatal. For weeks, state and local officials have reminded Californians about the dangers that storms bring, and particularly about the perils of driving through flooded streets. |
The officials have sought to inform the especially vulnerable. The state emergency services department met with hundreds of representatives from community groups throughout California in an attempt to deploy trusted messengers to people who are homeless, disabled, isolated or otherwise susceptible to danger. Helicopters flew over riverbed homeless encampments, broadcasting aerial warnings to seek shelter or move to higher ground. The authorities also kept dozens of roads closed yesterday. |
One of the people feared to have died in the storm this week is a 5-year-old boy, who was pulled from his mother's arms and swept away by rising floodwaters in San Luis Obispo County when the two, who were on their way to the boy's kindergarten, were forced to climb out of their vehicle. |
It doesn't take much rain for road intersections to wind up underwater, says Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. |
He has worked to develop another effort to educate residents: a hyperlocal forecasting system to inform them of the risk that their neighborhoods — or even streets — face from a coming storm. With more information, Californians could decide whether to stay or go, whether they can drive to work, which route to take if they evacuate and even whether they need to prepare their home with sandbags. |
"This event is a bit of a wake-up call," he said. "We haven't had a really severe urban flooding problem of this scale for at least a couple of decades." |
Then there are the more complicated solutions. |
Christopher Flavelle and Raymond Zhong, who report on climate for The Times, wrote last week about an approach that many experts are encouraging: finding ways for rivers to overflow safely by pulling levees further away from the rivers — even if it means removing houses and other structures that are in the way. |
"The worse the floods are, the more this will become the pressing issue," Chris said. |
Giving rivers more room to overflow could help manage rainwater and avoid flooding homes, property and farmland. But in a state of nearly 40 million people, it is a thorny task: Buying land is expensive and may in some cases require taking that land through eminent domain. |
The large-scale infrastructure that already exists in California to manage floods has, for the most part, carried out the task of diverting water, Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, told me. What it needs are tweaks, including widening flood bypasses and creeks. One example is a project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade the 63-year-old Whittier Narrows Dam in Los Angeles County, an effort that could help prevent a catastrophic flood. Another is a new reservoir off the Sacramento River that is set to break ground in 2024. |
Like tornadoes in the Midwest and South and hurricanes on the East Coast, flooding will be a persistent issue in California, Lund said. |
"We have a lot of proposals to build new reservoirs, capturing storm water in urban areas," he said. "We'll probably do some of that, and it'll help a little. But it's not going to end this problem." |
 | | President Biden on Wednesday.Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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- Russia's military put a Kremlin ally in charge of its forces in Ukraine, ignoring calls by some in Russia for an overhaul.
- More than 200 Russian doctors implored Vladimir Putin to "stop abusing" the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, whose wife said he was locked in with a sick cellmate.
- A video shows how unprepared Brazilian security forces were to protect the country's Congress from rioters. See how protesters broke in.
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International aid often fails to transform troubled places. A grass-roots association in a Kenyan slum shows another way, Nicholas Kristof writes. |
Enjoy the complete Times experience today. |
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 | | Subway riders took little notice of the man on the wooden chair.Jonah Rosenberg for The New York Times |
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Lives Lived: Jeff Beck was one of the most skilled and influential guitarists in rock history as a member of the Yardbirds and a leader in his own bands. He died at 78. |
| SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC |
Hamlin discharged: The Bills safety Damar Hamlin is home from the hospital, nine days after suffering cardiac arrest on the field in Cincinnati. He'll continue his rehabilitation at home and with the team. |
A return: The Minnesota Twins reintroduced Carlos Correa yesterday, with both sides expressing surprise and relief about reuniting. |
Investigation: Northwestern University is investigating allegations of hazing in its football program, the university said. |
In its annual 52 Places to Go feature, The Times's Travel desk highlights trip ideas for the year. For 2023, some are cities on the rise both in the U.S. and around the world, some are popular spots worth revisiting, and others are far-flung destinations that you might not have heard about. |
"Every year we find that themes develop organically," Amy Virshup, the Travel editor, said. One theme that emerged in 2023, she said, was "wide open spaces" — including the American Prairie in Montana, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Brazil and Tassili n'Ajjer in Algeria. |
 | | Julia Gartland for The New York Times |
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The pangram from yesterday's Spelling Bee was implement. Here is today's puzzle. |
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. |
Matthew Cullen, Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. |
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