| The Palo Alto History Project |
| The Great Flood Protest |
| 2006 |
| The Great Flood Protest: You Can Beat City Hall In the days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many government leaders appeared out-of-touch and incapable of handling the crisis in the Gulf States. President Bush, FEMA Director Mike Brown, and many local leaders in Louisiana were seen as distant and self-congratulatory while thousands remained helpless in the wake of the floods. Seven years earlier, during the 1998 floods, politics in Palo Alto seemed a microcosm of what would happen later in the Bayou. As in New Orleans, the flood and the needs of citizens coping tested the government. While most agreed that the assistance provided after the creek broke its banks was top-notch, serious questions remained concerning the lack of warning residents had that the flood was on its way. As was the case years later in New Orleans, government seemed ill-prepared and alarmingly late in their reaction to the emergency. Attorney John Hanna was angry about the loss of his house and car at 1424 Hamilton Street, but it made it even worse that the city had not heeded his warnings. He had repeatedly warned the city that faulty design of Chaucer Bridge (sarcastically referred to by some as Chaucer Dam) could cause extreme flooding. "It happened exactly the way I was told to them it was going to happen,” Hanna said later. At the first City Council meeting following the flood, officials grossly misread the public’s mood concerning the emergency. By the time they had a chance to face city officials, residents were angry. To begin the meeting, City Manager June Fleming and city council members spent the first hour congratulating staff on the city’s reaction to the disaster. Micki Schneider even praising the fire department for pumping her basement out so promptly outraging those victims of more serious flooding who were still waiting for the same service six days later. As in New Orleans in 2005, officials might have done well to wait until all was well before any rounds of back-slapping. Indignant residents were still hauling mud and muck out of their cellars in a large slice of Palo Alto and Fleming’s message of “a job well done” was the last thing anyone wanted to hear. At one point in the meeting, audience members jeered and heckled Council member Sandra Eakins who cracked a joke about what the Farmer's Almanac predicted in terms of weather for next week. "It's not funny," some in the audience shouted. Residents then took advantage of an extended oral communication period to lambaste the council with criticism. "The act of nature I understand, but the lack of information is incredible," said De Soto Drive resident Mary Schaefer, whose house had been flooded. "I may have lost my family photographs . . . but I have lost trust in the city, which is the biggest thing." Some residents asked the council to consider removing the Chaucer Street Bridge, which they saw as a primary reason for the seriousness of the flooding. “Let's think about getting rid of this bridge,” one resident said. "This is a serious job retention issue for you this year." Later Stanford professor Gary Nolan detailed the loss of his Alester Street residence and pointed out that “It just really goes to show you how distanced community leaders are from what is really going on." Many speakers also spoke of the lack of sandbags during the crisis. The night of the flood, one Palo Alto Avenue resident told how he finally gave up on the city and called a private company to order 96 sandbags at a cost of $360. Others waited for up to two hours at Palo Alto Avenue and Hale Street for more bags. The City Council meeting ended with everyone feeling tense and frayed. The following week, two stories emerged that did not help officials quell public outrage. First, it was discovered that a $40,000 early-notification system with the capability to warn residents in advance of natural disasters was rejected during the city budgeting process three years in a row. Without it, officials could only use bullhorns and ring doorbells to warn residents of flood dangers---not that there was a whole lot of that on the fateful night anyway. That same week, an anonymous letter was sent to Palo Alto Weekly revealing some of the actions of emergency workers on the night of the flood. The letter revealed that emergency workers had been dispatched by the city’s fire chief to sandbag City Manager June Fleming’s Hamilton Avenue residence and evacuate her husband ahead of others on long waiting lists. This prompted the mayor to ask for a city investigation which eventually found the actions to be inappropriate favoritism (although the investigation did exonerate Fleming herself). By March, city officials seemed to regain their footing. City staff including City Manager Fleming, eight city council members, and the fire and police chiefs held a town meeting in which dozens of citizens came forth with heart-wrenching stories of the loss of priceless personal items. Many continued to express outrage. One mother said she waited five hours, alone with her two young children for help getting out of her home. She questioned why there were no sirens sounded in her neighborhood. "I was frightened Tuesday night. A siren wasn't going to frighten me more.” Toward the end, visibly moved, at times too choked up to speak, city department heads responded to the residents' concerns, taking a step to restore their faith in their city. City Manager June Fleming apologized on behalf of the city. "This is a new experience for us, and we're not doing everything right." In the months that followed, the city did seem to learn from the experience. They made many changes to the system for emergency warnings, flood management, and securing the creek. Tales of heroics from local police and firefighters, as well as the sleepless nights worked by those in city government, began to emerge in the local papers. For some, faith in the city was eventually restored. For others, such as John Hanna, faith was never restored. Hanna, 26 other homeowners and 1 small business in Palo Alto and Menlo Park sued the cities for their failures in handling the flood. Eventually the cities agreed to a settlement to the tune of $3.5 million dollars. Hanna never did achieve what he said was his ultimate goal, however---The Chaucer Street Bridge still stands to this day. While there is no doubt that the flood of February 3rd, 1998 did serious damage to Palo Alto in terms of property damage, it also damaged the reputation of the city government to cope in a crisis -Matt Bowling |
| Attorney John Hanna, who sued the city and won |
| The Chaucer Street Bridge, or Dam as some called it |
| The Chaucer Street Bridge with a flood measuring stick |
| The map below shows key locations in the Great Flood of '98 |
| The San Francisquito Creek from the Chaucer Street Bridge |
| A diagram from Palo Alto Weekly explaining how a storm drain exceeds capacity. |
| A diagram from Palo Alto Weekly explaining how raw sewage flooded some streets in Palo Alto. |
| The creek rising |
| Tree parts begin to collect in piles |
| Palo Alto teacher Lucinda Surber stands by the creek in 1998 |
| The creek rising |
| Residents use sand bags to protect their homes |
| The 101 Freeway closed due to the flood |
| University Avenue closed and flooded |
| Palo Alto: Then & Now |
1998 |
| 2007 |
| Duveneck Elementary School at Alester and Channing was the hardest hit school during the flood. 6 classrooms were flooded as well as many of the houses of its attending students. This look down Alester Street shows the primary wing of the school. |
| Duveneck Elementary today, now painted green and a lot dryer. A new cluster of classrooms were added to the school in 2001, as seen at left. The same trees and signs remain, however. |
| Sources: Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto Historical Association |