PRISON UNDER WATER, OR AT LEAST ABOUT TO BE, MAYBE.

By Bob Walsh

 

I can tell you from direct personal experience that managing a flooded prison is difficult.  It is doable believe it or not.  It is, however, difficult.

Corcoran is a small city, chiefly a gas stop along I-5, in the middle of butthole nowhere.  There is however a prison there.  A fairly new (as far as prisons go) fairly large facility.  Right next to it is Tulare Lake, a body of water that has been extinct for many years, until recently.  The city, and the prison, are protected by a 14.5 mile levee that is not real new nor in real good repair.  

The prison, two prisons technically, both the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (SATF) and California State Prison, Corcoran, between them house about 8,000 guests of the state.  And there is realistic fear that the whole area could be underwater if the snow melts quickly enough.

The city wants to raise the levee about 3.5 feet.  They don't have the $21 million.  If the city does flood it will be about a $6 billion economic loss to the state in general and the local area in particular.  

The Cross Creek Flood Control District, which has responsibility for the levee, has tapped reserve funds to start work on the levee.  It is, however, out of resources.  

The Army Corps of Engineers helped shore up the levees around Corcoran in 1969 and 1983.  They have said however that the levee does not fall under their responsibility.  The Department of Water Resources  has sent techies to check out the situation.  The immediate issue is the fact that the snowpack in the area is about 300% of normal.  That is a lot of water.  Also the area around Corcoran has subsided (compacted) due to overpumping of ground water.  Unfortunately that means that it is harder for the water to get back into the aquifer because the land is compressed.  The now existent Tulare Lake is likely to be around for two years.  There is real question about the levee being able to hold that long.  

A fair part of Corcoran is 174 feet above mean sea level.  The water west of town is at 178 feet.  The levee, if it holds, is at 188 feet.  Back in 1969 the levee was 192 feet.  The subsidence of the ground under the area is causing the levees to drop with the land underneath them.

The prison has stopped accepting intake though is not evacuating prisoners.  Yet.  It is a fun operation.  I was once directly involved in evacuating a large chunk of the prisoners at DVI.  We got slightly more than 1,000 men out in 26 hours.  Also 1,000 head of dairy cows.  The bus crews earned an ungodly amount of overtime.