Lessons from 'Flood of the Century' relevant 10 years later

The headline on the Jan. 1, 1997, edition of the Nevada Appeal didn't have anything to do with welcoming the new year. The banner headline was just four words:

"Flood of the Century"

For more than a week, residents from Reno to Gardnerville and Lake Tahoe to Yerington worked to stem the rising tide from rivers and tributaries swelling over banks and turning streets into swimming holes.

Carson City received most of its damage as water rushed out of the canyons and bottle necked in the city's storm drain system on its way to the river. But the river never left its banks through Carson.

At one point, a 50-gallon barrel clogged the channel beneath Fifth Street, the water finding release as a geyser gushing through a manhole.

Leading up to New Year's Eve 1997, an estimated 21 inches of wet, heavy snow loaded tree branches to the breaking point and clogged streets for more than a week. But that was nothing.

During the night, a monsoon-like wind blew over the Sierra Nevada and brought with it a warm rain and a rush of water not seen in Northern Nevada since 1955. "The Flood of the Century" had begun.

The Carson River crested at 8.4 feet above the 10-foot flood stage, coursing 27,500 cubic feet of water per second through Northern Nevada. At peak flow, the river ran at 12.4 million gallons per minute.

Gov. Bob Miller declared a state of emergency for Carson City, Storey, Washoe, Lyon and Douglas counties. During a helicopter tour of the area, Miller said, "It's a frightening sight. It looks like monsoon season in Southeast Asia. You can't even tell the Genoa Lakes Golf Course is a golf course."

More than 125,000 homes in California and Nevada were evacuated, and the total price tag reached more than $10 million. The flood claimed only one life, a Douglas County construction worker.

Frederick Franklin Pinard, 59, was working in a front-end loader along the banks of the Carson River when the bank gave way, sweeping him and the 18-ton loader downstream.

Memorial services were held for Pinard in February 1997, though his remains were not found until nearly a year later about a mile from the trailer park he was trying to save.

"He died doing what he was most good at, which was helping out," said his friend Steve Erven.

The flood in Carson was said to reach levels seen only once in any 100-year period, but was less dramatic along the Truckee River, where storage facilities were built after the 1955 event.

"When it starts flooding like that, you can't head it off. You can only hope to protect property and lives as long as you can. You can't stop it; you can only reduce your risk and damage," said Curtis Horton, who was a maintenance group supervisor during the 1997 flood.

Horton was in charge of the Kings Canyon/Ash Canyon sections of the city and was tasked with assisting homeowners in any way possible.

"I pulled up and was surrounded by not less than 50 people screaming at me to get sandbags and do something about the water," Horton said. "One guy got my attention and told me the water was coming in his back door and out his front door."

The experiences Horton gained working on the flood of 1997 came in handy in 2006 when flooding again welcomed the new year. Horton was the incident commander of that flood.

"I remember watching the area on East Fifth Street in front of the Nevada State Prison. I knew the water level was rising when the Dumpsters from the prison floated out onto the road," Horton said.

Because of experience with previous floods, Carson City officials had learned where to place sandbags to be most effective.

"We learned the pattern from the water flow, and our engineering department gave us a plan," Horton said. "One of the lessons learned from the 1997 flood was that we had to implement the (incident-command system), and now everyone is familiar with that."

Since 1997, more than $36 million in flood control projects have been implemented, including the drainage system constructed as part of the Carson City freeway and detention basins near the west-side canyons.

"This was the worst flooding the city had seen since the floods of 1997," said Mayor Marv Teixeira on Dec. 31, 2005.

"We had as many as 180 people out on the streets all night placing sandbags in strategic locations. We were very, very prepared.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of the people out there busting their butts to protect this community. When you look at it compared to '97, this is nothing. But this thing is not over, and I suspect the cleanup will take a while."

• Contact reporter Jarid Shipley at jshipley@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.