From mavensnotebook.com (Courthouse News Service) – People in Sacramento navigate K Street in rowboats during the California flood of 1861-62, which historians say obliterated up to 25 percent of the assessed property value in the state. “In drought-ridden California’s history, megafloods have occurred about every century. Not often, but from a geological standpoint they’re not rare. The most notable megaflood in recent history, the Great Flood of 1862, came after a 20-year drought. One of the costliest natural disasters to hit the disaster-prone state, the flood caused $100 million in damages, equal to $3.11 billion today. The 1862 megaflood occurred not as the result of a single storm, but weeks of continuous rain and heavy snow in the Sierra. It culminated in a warm intense monster of a storm that melted all the snow that had fallen in the prior weeks. The resulting flood turned the Central Valley into an inland sea up to 30 feet deep and 4,000 people — 1% of the state’s population at the time — lost their lives. (more)