[quote=no_such_reality]Do you think they’d say ‘we screwed the pooch’, even if did?
[/quote]

Probably not right away, but there would be a time when they would start evacuating folks. That happened in the 1980s. As I recall, the levee broke at night in the Marysville suburb of Linda.

The most common story I heard about the 1950s levee breach in Marysville proper was that everyone thought the levee was going to break in Yuba City (the two cities are on opposite sides of the river). Car dealers moved their new cars from YC to Marysville. Everyone evacuated YC. Then the levee broke in Marysville. Oy.

It is quite a sight to see when the water rises so high it is at the crest of the levee on both sides of the river. Gives me goosebumps. I go fill my gas tank.