Early flooding at Discovery Park?

Trail Closed SignsThese were not up in the morning

I was surprised to encounter flooding at the 2.5 mile marker along the American River Parkway this morning on my way to work. So much so I had to turn back and navigate my way to the Arden Garden Connector toward Truxel.

Discovery Park itself is quite flooded, too. Is it normal to flood out so far along the Parkway? My guess is the overflow area is actually the source of the, well, overflow.

UPDATE: Here are some photos I took on my home this afternoon…

American River Parkway Entrance at Northgate

American River Parkway Entrance at Northgate

American River Parkway Flooding at Mile Marker 1.5

American River Parkway Flooding at Mile Marker 1.5

American River Parkway Flooding at Mile Marker 2.5

American River Parkway Flooding at Mile Marker 2.5

Flooding along the American River Parkway

Google Map screen shot of the area that was flooded. I did not take this photo.

Author: RonTopofIt

RonTopofIt is a complex personality, as are most of the small breed of modern day renaissance millionaires. He wishes more people were like him and yet believes that it takes all kinds. You've met RonTopofIt many times, you just don't remember him.

9 thoughts on “Early flooding at Discovery Park?”

  1. All the wet stuff falling from the sky probably has something to do with it. Folsom Dam did a heavy release of water in order to make room for the upcoming heavy rains, so levels along the American are extra-high right now. The flooded stretch of parkway is doing its job.

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  2. Good one, wburg. I get jokes.

    Tell me more about the stretch of the Parkway doing its job. It’s built to flood to protect other parts of the city?

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  3. Oh yeah- that 5,000^3 m. of overflow capacity is really gonna protect us… Just wait ’till it rains again, after the ground is saturated. Global warming, kids. Stop exhaling that COv2.

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  4. Ron: When John Sutter showed up in town, the mouth of the American River emptied into the Sacramento roughly where the Amtrak depot is now, and he was able to beach his boat about a block from the B Street Theater. We moved the American River north, primarily with manual labor, to direct it away from downtown Sacramento, and put levees around it to direct flood waters away. So yeah, in many ways, Discovery Park and pretty much everything in between the big levees is deliberately intended to flood in heavy rain years, so the city doesn’t.

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  5. Good information, wburg (as always).

    I also learned from this story on sacbee.com that (like you were saying):

    the Bureau of Reclamation at 6 p.m. Wednesday began releasing approximately 30,000 cubic feet per second down the river as part of flood control management operations at Folsom Lake.

    And from another article:

    Anyone recreating or traveling along the river should be cautious of rising river levels. The releases will cause the river to rise by 4 to 5 feet at Hazel Avenue. Portions of the American River Parkway trail will go under water as a result, along with parts of Discovery Park at the confluence with the Sacramento River.

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  6. OK but back to RTOI’s first comment. If that photo of a stop sign is flood protection “working,” then it’s not working.

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  7. Good one, cogmeyer. Glad folks are paying attention. I moved the Google map screenshot into the main gallery when I changed out the post image.

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