Mr. SAMSON. Thank you very much.

I would like to express the appreciation of Governor Reagan for our people to have the opportunity to appear before you and also for the work which has been done in California for which this committee has been responsible in the past.

The California Disaster Office is responsible for the administration of Public Law 875 funds, which provide for the emergency repairs and restoration outside of the private sector, and I would emphasize that the bill becomes even more important in the prevention of disruptions to the economy.

The general estimates which I have included in my report to the committee have been revised upward and, as has been indicated, also, these are continuing to escalate. The figure of $165 million will probably be increased somewhat as a result of later reporting. There are also certain areas today which cannot be reached because of the heavy snow cover and, accordingly, the results in there will not be known until sometime later in the spring.

It is indicated, also, that landslides which are occurring will continue to occur, regardless of whether the rain continues, because the ground is so saturated in many areas that it can be predicted that there will be landslides for several months to come.

The total private damage has been indicated as $100 million. Roughly 55 percent of this is in the agricultural areas, 20 percent in residential and commercial and 25 percent in the utilities areas. Hence, the importance of the other aspects of this bill, which the Senator has mentioned.

I would comment briefly on your question concerning the San Joaquin Valley. As you probably are aware, there are two old lake beds in the lower part of the San Joaquin Valley-Tulare Lake and Buena Vista Lake. These are areas which formerly were lake beds, later reclaimed and now used as tremendously rich farming land. They are divided into large cells which are flooded as necessary on a contingency basis when floods occur.

In the 1967 period we had something like 23,000 acres in the Tulare Lake Basin flooded and it carried about 7 to 8 feet deep, something on the order of 175,000 acre-feet. This was done by flooding, I believe, two of the cells.

There is now some 70,000 acres under water, anticipated to rise to 200,000 acres, with something like 335,000 to 350,000 acre-feet of water in there now, which may well go up over 1 million acre-feet. This water will remain in the area for a considerable time; so it can affect that land and the economy of those counties for years.

In 1967 it was late August and September, before that water receded off the land, and then some time after that before the farmers could get in to plant; so you can see that there is a tremendous side effect on the economy of the area which affects its tax structure.

This, again, emphasizes the importance of the emergency aspects of this bill. Since mid-February, in anticipation of the coming floods which will create some problems in these and other areas, we have been meeting with the representatives of the Federal Government, various State agencies, and private individuals who have the control of the flow of water in these various areas. We are working out a coordinated effort to insure that storage in reservoirs behind the dams along the east slope of the San Joaquin Valley is reduced to the maximum extent possible before the floods really start from the melting snows in the spring. Recent warm weather has increased the inflow to reservoirs. The increase of the out-flow has caused levels to be drawn down so there now is a considerable reservoir space available. This will continue throughout the period. Also, provisions have been made for the patrolling of the levees, emergency repair work, and all things necessary to provide the maximum of safety during this period. These will require considerable additional expenditures