California Scrambling

It's a race against time to make sure that California's levees do not fail in light of the expected heavy rains that are predicted for later this week.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for California’s levee system in February, a step that freed up about $103 million for repairs to 24 flood-prone sites.

That work is typically done in the summer, when water behind the levees is at its low point, but state water officials decided not to wait.

Mayer identified seven sites that were being bolstered Sunday, most in sparsely populated areas.

Six were in San Joaquin County, including three near the tiny community of Two Rivers, a two-hour drive east of San Francisco near the confluence of the San Joaquin and Stanislaus rivers. Workers were building a berm, filling in a ditch and adding rocks to protect a river bank from further erosion.

Another San Joaquin project was reinforcing the Paradise Cut levee near Lathrop.

The seventh site was in Fresno County, near the town of Firebaugh, population approximately 7,000, where crews were raising a levee that protects the town.