Flooded area faces deadlines for planting, spring runoff

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

"Irrigation season starts the first of March. We're very concerned about this," Dave Fulstone said at a meeting called on Tuesday by Sen. Harry Reid to evaluate the effects of the flood on the Mason Valley.

Fulstone, an alfalfa grower and the new County Commission chairman, said the flood not only decimated irrigation ditches throughout the area, it also trashed the dikes that keep the Walker River within its banks.

"We could still be in the same sort of a flooding situation this spring, 30-60 days away," he said. "We need those dikes to protect the city of Yerington."

Reid, D-Nev., earlier viewed the flooding by air, but was in Yerington to conclude a ground survey of the damage and said he was surprised by the amount of damage.

"We can't solve problems by looking at a letter or by a telephone call. You have to look at it yourself. This has been a great lesson to me," he said.

Reid said checks already were being distributed to people who had losses in the flooding. Lyon and four other western Nevada counties already have been declared federal disaster areas and the Federal Emergency Management Agency opened its disaster recovery center here Tuesday morning.

Spokeswoman Beth Goldenberg said people were on hand to help with problems ranging from damaged furniture to lost homes including tax and legal assistance and crisis counseling.

"Our goal is to get them back on their feet and into a safe and sanitary environment - hopefully their homes," she said.

Also on Tuesday, a $725,867 bid was awarded to A&K Earth Movers Inc., of Fallon to re-open Nevada 208, which was washed out along the Walker River through Wilson Canyon Jan. 3.

The road, which links Yerington to Smith Valley and Douglas County, is a top priority to Lyon County, Fulstone said. The contractor has 30 days to re-open the highway, with a $5,000-a-day bonus for early completion and a $5,000-a-day penalty for finishing late.

"The real losses in this flood will be governmental in nature - the dams, the levees, the highways," Reid said on Tuesday.

And he added that of all the post-disaster work FEMA does, 75 percent of it involves flooding.

Fulstone said that he and other growers had largely lost their irrigation capability with planting time approaching.

"Of the concrete ditches, the ones that aren't washed out are filled with rocks and dirt and silt. With the amount of flooding we had this time, the dikes are devastated."

Reid said that because of studies he initiated earlier on the Walker, some money already was available to help with repairs.

"We knew the river channels needed a significant amount of work done with them," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to make the river system something that works for the people that depend on the river."

And despite the damage and grief the flooding has caused, Reid said there might be one positive result as far as the Walker goes.

"Frankly, I'm glad there's been some attention focused on this river, although I'm sorry it's been this way," he said. "Until now, it seemed like the only people who cared about this river were the irrigation interests and me."