1997.

It was expected the Emergency spillway would overtop.

Evacuation orders were given 24+ hours beforehand (unlike 2017).

Sutter County was evacuated. Low-lying areas of Yuba County were evacuated. We were in a small 'corner' of Butte County that was not evacuated.

We couldn't have gone anywhere anyway, as all of the local roads were underwater.

I was working in Yuba City at the time, but I couldn't get to work due to the roads (and the fact that Yuba City was evacuated).

I heard later from my boss about their harrowing escape from Yuba City, trying to head west on Hwy 20 toward Sutter in complete gridlock. It reminded him of his family's escape in the 1955 flood when he was just a kid. Watching the water coming down their street as his dad was flooring the car to get the Hell out of Dodge.

That evening in 1997, I was listening to my scanner. A Yuba County sheriff deputy was attempting to locate two individuals trapped in a car due to the rising water.

The deputy was in his patrol vehicle, followed by two other deputies in a Bronco with a rubber boat on a trailer.

He rounded a curve in the road and was faced with a wall of water approaching his vehicle. The levee had failed south of Olivehurst.

I will never forget the sheer terror in his voice as he relayed the information to dispatch. He described his vehicle being inundated by the water.

He and the other deputies were able to get the boat off the trailer and got into it.

Their vehicles were lost, and the people they were attempting to rescue were lost.

I was sitting here listening to the radio, completely stunned.

Yes, it changes you.

All because of DWR greed.