SPENCER MICHELS: This is not New Orleans, 2005. Rather, it's
Linda, California, north of Sacramento, 1986, when the
Sacramento River broke through the levees that are supposed to
contain it. In 1997, more than 30 levees ruptured, killing nine
people and flooding large areas of the state. But that flood,
like others, was essentially forgotten within a few months, says
University of California geologist Jeffrey Mount. JEFFREY MOUNT:
It got everyone's attention. Everybody ran around in circles and
said, "We've got to do something about these levees, and do
something about flood control here and nothing happened. SPENCER
MICHELS: Now Hurricane Katrina and the devastation in Louisiana
have renewed California's fears a similar event could happen
here, even as thousands of new homes are being built in
vulnerable areas. JEFFREY MOUNT: Katrina showed us what could
happen. In that time, the population has skyrocketed,
particularly on the flood plains. SPENCER MICHELS: Mount points
out that a court recently ruled that t