Flood Control

. -- Some people in this tiny Katrina-ravaged town talk of Harry Hull's modest, vinyl-clad home as if a spaceship had landed on the bayou. It stands out not because it is built on land only 5 feet above sea level -- scores of people have rebuilt on low land -- but because it looms 18 feet above ground. It is raised so high on wooden pilings that Hull, 70, must climb 26 steps to get to his front door.

California's capital city may be best known for politics, but it has another claim to fame: It's America's most flood-threatened city not named New Orleans. A recent state report predicts that the right combination of unlucky weather conditions could put some parts of the city under more than 20 feet of water, causing a $25-billion disaster that would cripple state government and ripple through the California economy.

As floodwaters slowly receded from much of Iowa on Wednesday, authorities focused their attention on a swollen Mississippi River that punched through at least two levees in western Illinois and increasingly threatened hamlets in Missouri. Federal officials said as many as 30 levees were in peril, mostly in rural stretches of northern Missouri and western Illinois. No large population centers were threatened. "The concern now is the Mississippi River between the Quad Cities and St.

After the great floods of 1993 swamped this tiny town in eastern Iowa, Mike Luck begged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help protect it from future disasters. Corps officials responded that this community of fewer than 700 residents probably would have to chip in more than $1 million to help build the federally engineered levee system it sought, the former mayor recalled.

Fearing a dam break that could cause catastrophic flooding in Kentucky and Tennessee, the Army Corps of Engineers has begun lowering the water level on Lake Cumberland. The measure was aimed at reducing pressure on the weakened 240-foot-high dam, said Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt. "We must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself," he said.

Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long on Tuesday asked colleague John Flynn to detail how much his office spent to send out 11,000 mailers accusing his fellow board members of misappropriating flood-protection dollars. Long said she wanted to know which households Flynn targeted in the mailing, how much the notices cost to produce and send, and where Flynn got the money.

Call it the $5,800 news conference. That's how much Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn says he spent in taxpayer dollars on 11,600 mailers inviting Santa Clara River Valley residents to a March 19 media gathering that he called to lambaste fellow supervisors. Flynn used the event to accuse the board of redirecting money in December that should have gone toward a sewer conversion project in El Rio, a small community north of Oxnard in his 5th District.

The federal government released its long-awaited risk assessment for New Orleans on Wednesday, saying the city is safer than it was before Hurricane Katrina but still faces a 1-in-100 chance each year of significant flooding -- a prospect that could undermine the city's future. After a scientific investigation, the Army Corps of Engineers released flood maps showing the risks from hurricane-triggered surges to each home and business in New Orleans.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency Tuesday amid concern that a crumbling levee in Huntington Beach could fail in heavy rain, threatening as many as 400 homes and exposing the county to millions of dollars in liability. The levee forms the north side of a channel that slices through Huntington Beach near the environmentally sensitive Bolsa Chica wetlands.

LA JOLLA INDIAN RESERVATION -- With rain clouds gathering nearby, key officials in the post-fire recovery efforts for Southern California said Saturday that they're racing to take steps to prevent erosion and mudslides. The Witch, Poomacha and Rice fires that struck northern San Diego County last month scorched steep hillsides and hilltops, increasing the chances that rain will create muddy runoff that could endanger homes and clog streams and culverts, officials said.