PLANADA, Calif. — Once the levee broke, the water rose so quickly that in the few minutes it took Erica Lopez Bedolla to decide to evacuate and gather her children and a few necessities, it had surged from her ankles to her knees.
What followed that night in early January was the stuff of nightmares: a fearful scramble through pelting rain; a flooded car engine that stopped cold; a frantic escape on foot through dark, brackish water. Then, days later, more misfortune: Not only was her house flooded, but so was her mother-in-law's, and her mother's, and her brother's.
Not to mention that Bedolla's home was one of about 40 in the town of Planada whose valuables were stolen in the aftermath of the evacuation.
