State Route 70 in Plumas County was partially covered in slide debris in January partially as a result of the steady parade of winter storms.
By Dave Changizi
Chief, Headquarters Major Damage Restoration Branch of the Office of Emergency Management
This year the wintertime in California has been different in many ways for us Californians. The three years of consecutive drought shrunk our water sources, such as lakes, reservoirs and aquafers statewide. We hoped for some relief this winter and wished for enough to recover the losses during the past three years.
We got our wishes beginning Dec. 24, 2022. However, it came in a mixed package; the volume of the precipitation was monumental, and our resources were inundated with an unprecedented workload.
The successive storms caused Department Operations Center to be continuously active for four months. Nearly all districts had to follow suit at their operations center with the same rate and intensity of staffing.
For months, state highways 1 at Big Sur and 70 in the Feather River Canyon District 5 and 3, respectively, have been shut down. An estimated 590 million cubic yards of snow have been plowed. 3.5 million miles of roadway have been plowed since the beginning of this snow season.
According to the latest report to CalOES, the cost estimate of the damage to the State Highway System (SHS) assets has been assessed at about $700 million for Dec. 27, 2022, through March 2023. As of this writing, in early May, we are updating the damage assessment by including the sites that are buried under tons of snow or are still inaccessible. Some of the main SHS assets that these storms have impacted consist of culverts, pavement, pumps, electrical components, embankments, guardrails and trees.
The SHS assets have been subject to flooding, slides, slip-outs, mudslides, rock falls, debris flow and washouts.
So far, the total cost estimate of damage to the SHS is over $1 billion, which may be in excess of the record total for fiscal year 2016-17 once all the damage has been assessed.
Historically, the department has experienced an average damage cost of $650 million for the past seven fiscal years (from FY2016 through FY2022), while the average seven years before that (FY2009 through FY2015) amounted to $179 million. The available data points to an even lower amount in the years before FY2009.
The Headquarters Major Damage Restoration branch has continuously collected and communicated the latest damage costs with our internal and external partners. As a result of our collaboration with district MDRs, and through the invaluable effort by CalOES, we received multiple proclamations from the governor. Each proclamation enables the department to seek federal reimbursement. Upon the availability of the funds by FHWA and FEMA, we should expect a return of more than 75 percent of the expenditure of the eligible costs.
All in all, this year has been a remarkable year of precipitation. The drought seems to be a story of the past, but the effect of the storm is lingering around through continuous precipitation and cold temperature. Nonetheless, we Californians have once again proven our formidable resiliency in coping with nature’s surprises.