From the Sacramento Bee – Hundreds of millions of new federal dollars are headed to the region to help fund the major Natomas levee project. The Natomas Basin is regarded as one of the nation’s most at-risk areas for “catastrophic flooding,” according to the federal project’s webpage. Severe storms in 1997 and 2006 exposed “serious underseepage” in the basin. Local and federal agencies are aiming to bolster the 42-mile ring of levees that surround it. The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency completed the first 18 miles of improvements, with federal projects in progress on the remaining 24. (more)