Before the 1986 flood, almost no one had flood insurance. Roberts said that several major Fortune 500 companies he had been courting flatly told him they would not even look at land in the floodplain, which ruled out 80 percent of the city. Sacramento city officials called a decadelong moratorium on home building in what was going to be the region's next big growth area, low-lying North Natomas, just north of downtown. That helped fuel the dramatic suburban hill growth in South Placer and Folsom, both of which are mostly out of flood danger. It also played at least a small part in pushing the area's inner-ring suburbs, places such as Meadowview, Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights, into an economic decline.
Officials say that area now is safe to build houses.
The problem is the rest of the city. Most of Sacramento is no longer considered to have adequate flood protection. City leaders list it as their most significant unsolved problem. Yet politicians bicker over what to do and how to get Congress to loosen the purse strings. Citizens express anger at having to pay for flood protection.