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Thousands of acres are underwater in California, and the flood could triple in size this summer | CNN

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Thousands of acres are underwater in California, and the flood could triple in size this summer | CNN



Corcoran, California
CNN
 — 

Torrents and torrents of rain have drowned 1000’s of acres of farmland in California’s Central Valley this winter and resuscitated a lake that vanished many years in the past. So far as the attention can see, water stretches to the horizon — throughout roads, throughout crop fields, by means of houses and buildings.

Now, the huge snowpack that piled up on the Sierra Nevada this winter is a dripping time bomb. Because it melts, the flood might triple in measurement by summer time, threatening the encompassing communities and costing billions in losses.

“The entire crops are fully flooded and ruined,” resident Martina Sealy mentioned as she held her child daughter and gazed out throughout white-capped water, the place huge fields of cotton and alfalfa had grown all her life. “It takes loads of jobs for individuals. That’s loads of meals that we offer for up and down California and throughout the nation. It’s fairly scary.”

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Even scarier whenever you notice the standing water that’s there now could be only the start of their ordeal.

“That is simply from the rain,” Sealy mentioned of the flooded fields. “However when the snow melts, there’s nowhere for it to go apart from right here.”

Tulare Lake was as soon as the largest freshwater physique west of the Mississippi till farmers consumed a lot of the Sierra Nevada runoff that it dried up and, over the many years, the lake mattress grew to become crop land.

Water was all the time a priority right here, however primarily as a result of there was by no means sufficient. As thirstier crops like almonds and pistachios got here into vogue, relentless pumping of groundwater made Corcoran one of many fastest-sinking areas of the nation, simply in time for Tulare Lake to come back again from the lifeless with a vengeance.

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“The bottom is actually sunk in some locations by 10 or 15 ft over the previous decade,” mentioned Daniel Swain, a local weather scientist on the College of California at Los Angeles. “That has actually modified the topography of the historic lakebed. Some locations are decrease even than they have been the final time there was an enormous flood occasion.”

Longtime residents, like Sidonio Palmerin, keep in mind how the final nice flood in 1983 took two years to dry out whereas the lack of agricultural work hollowed out Corcoran.

“We misplaced half our college inhabitants and about one-third of our metropolis inhabitants,” he recalled. “Quite a lot of the those who have been relocated misplaced their houses, their automobiles. It took a very long time to recuperate.”

Since there was no huge snowpack to fret about in ’83 and the city was 10 ft increased, he’s among the many city’s seniors who fear this time might be a lot worse.

“There are individuals which might be disabled, those who don’t have transportation,” Mary Gonzalez Gomez mentioned, standing in entrance of the one dwelling she’s ever identified. “And so they’re so nervous, if we get flooded, the place will we go? What’s going to we do?”

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A person shovels snow in Mammoth Lakes in late March.
Raul and Mary Gomez, Corcoran residents.

Because the water piled up, town and native farming pursuits began utilizing earth movers to lift the 14.5-mile levee that protects greater than 20,000 residents and eight,000 inmates in two prisons.

“God prepared, that’ll shield town of Corcoran,” mentioned Sheriff David Robinson of King County.

However he is aware of they’re racing in opposition to the melting snow.

“We’ve been lucky with a really sluggish, gentle spring up to now,” he mentioned. “However we all know the warmth’s coming.”

“Our snowmelt this season might be like an ultra-marathon in period,” the Nationwide Climate Service in Reno mentioned this week, “and we’re simply getting began on the primary mile.”

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Final summer time, UCLA’s Swain revealed a paper that predicted extra intense climate whiplash on a planet overheated by fossil gasoline air pollution, and in a worst-case state of affairs, relentless atmospheric rivers couldn’t solely make Tulare Lake everlasting once more — however might flip it into an enormous, inland sea.

“As disruptive and as damaging as this yr’s flooding has been, it’s nonetheless nowhere close to near what we foresee is the believable worst-case state of affairs,” Swain mentioned. “We all know that local weather change is actually placing the climate on steroids and giving us better and better possibilities of seeing these extraordinarily heavy precipitation occasions and extreme floods, whilst we additionally see extra extreme droughts and that in the identical a part of the world.”

However for now, simply the water that’s already right here is sufficient to throw lives like Martina Sealy’s into uncertainty.

“Tulare Lake is again,” she mentioned. “And it could take over and put us out.”

The resurrected Tulare Lake near Corcoran, California.



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California

Can new state regulations resolve California's home insurance crisis? | Opinion

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Can new state regulations resolve California's home insurance crisis? | Opinion

There’s no law requiring California property owners to carry insurance, but the vast majority buy it to protect themselves from fire and other perils, or are required to do so by their mortgage lenders.

There’s also no law requiring insurance companies to offer coverage in California, but most would prefer to do so in the nation’s most immense concentration of property needing protection.

For decades, insuring California’s homes, farms and commercial properties was a hum-drum business of willing sellers and willing buyers. However, the former have become less willing as the state experiences an ever-increasing number of wildfires — even during winter months — that devastate homes and businesses in fire-prone areas.

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Last Friday, as the latest of those fires was driving people from their homes in the quaint seaside village of Malibu, Ricardo Lara, the state’s elected insurance commissioner, formally unveiled a large chunk of his plan to stem the exodus of insurers from California.

It would allow insurers to use computer modeling of future exposure to set premiums, while requiring them to offer coverage in risky communities roughly in line with their shares of the market. Until now, insurers set rates based on past losses.

“Giving people more choices to protect themselves is how we will solve California’s insurance crisis,” Lara said in a statement as he released details of the modeling plan. “For the first time in history we are requiring insurance companies to expand where people need help the most. With our changing climate we can no longer look to the past. We are being innovative and forward-looking to protect Californians’ access to insurance.”

He also noted that in setting rates, insurers will be required to consider hardening efforts by threatened communities and property owners to reduce potential losses.

Lara claims support from environmental groups, farmers and other stakeholders, in addition to insurers. But he’s drawing sharp criticism from Consumer Watchdog, an organization that has sponsored landmark changes in insurance regulation. The group has also received millions of dollars in fees from intervening in insurance rates cases, and has been a harsh critic of Lara throughout his time in office.

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“Full transparency is what keeps insurance rates honest but Commissioner Lara’s rule does away with that protection,” Consumer Watchdog executive director Carmen Balber said in a statement. “The rule will let insurance companies raise rates based on secret algorithms but not expand coverage as promised.”

The new rules take effect in January. Farmers Insurance, California’s second-largest property insurer, has already pledged to expand its coverage in response to Lara’s actions. The American Property Casualty Association, a trade group, also reacted positively.

“California will continue to have a robust regulatory and rate approval process that guarantees that rates reflect the actual cost of covering claims,” the association said.

While the rules unveiled last week are central to Lara’s plans, there are other elements that remain: shoring up the FAIR Plan, California’s last ditch insurer for property owners who cannot obtain coverage elsewhere, speeding up insurance rate case approvals, and allowing insurers to include costs of reinsurance — coverage of their potential losses — in setting rates.

Adoption of Lara’s plans may result in premium increases, but maintaining a viable insurance market is a vital factor in the state’s economy. The inability to buy insurance would devastate the residential and commercial real estate market and require property owners to pay for fire losses out of their own pockets.

Lara’s plans may not be perfect, but nobody — including Consumer Watchdog — has offered a better alternative. He should be credited with at least attempting to deal with one of California’s existential crises.

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California bill would make schools off limits to all federal immigration agents

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California bill would make schools off limits to all federal immigration agents


California bill would make schools off limits to all federal immigration agents – CBS Sacramento

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California

California Democrats Plan To Take Measured Approach During Trump's Second Term | KQED

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California Democrats Plan To Take Measured Approach During Trump's Second Term | KQED


Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, December 16, 2024…

  • The first time Donald Trump was elected president, blue state Democrats — particularly those from California — asserted themselves as the frontline of the resistance. Eight years later, they say they’re making an intentional decision to stay calm, at least for now.
  • It’s official. California regulators are enforcing an agreement with the state’s largest insurance companies that they hope will stem the insurance crisis.
  • Crews have been working around the clock in the community of Scotts Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountains after a rare tornado touched down in the city on Saturday. At least five people were injured.

The first time Donald Trump was elected president, blue state Democrats — particularly those from California — asserted themselves as the frontline of the resistance. Eight years later, they say their best strategy for confronting a second Trump presidency is to stay calm.

Take California’s newly sworn-in U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff: The former House member garnered national attention during Trump’s first term. Schiff led the first impeachment of the president-elect, served on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, and regularly appeared on TV news as a spokesperson for a defiant Democratic party. However, as he begins his first term as senator, Schiff said his primary focus is on what he can get done for his home state. “We have a lot of serious challenges that people talk to me up and down the state as I traveled to California during the campaign,” he said, going on to cite the state’s high cost of living, water and air quality, and wildfires. “My first priority is solving those problems, meeting the needs of Californians.”

Schiff isn’t alone. As blue state Democrats brace for the president-elect to be sworn in again, even those he’s named as political enemies, like Schiff and others on the Jan. 6 committee, say they won’t be the ones picking a fight.

California Issues New Rules For Home Insurers

The state’s insurance department is requiring companies to write more policies in risky wildfire areas. In exchange it will let them use forward-looking risk models to set rates.





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