Flood-prone Church of Rio Linda to be demolished Thursday
SACRAMENTO - Thursday is demolition day for a Sacramento County church that's been around for more than five decades.
The First Apostolic Church of Rio Linda was built in 1972. It's located right across from Dry Creek, a waterway that often floods during strong winter storms.
"The Dry Creek area tends to rise up and low-lying areas like this end up becoming inundated with water," said Matt Robinson of the Sacramento County Water Resources.
Over the decades, the property has flooded more than 10 times. Church leaders considered elevating or moving the church but they say those ideas were not financially feasible.
"We had to replace the whole platform," said Pastor Bob Royer.
In 2019, Royer showed CBS13 just how high the past flooding has come inside the church.
"We got about 42 inches of water," he said.
So the congregation agreed to sell the church to the county of Sacramento, which plans on tearing the building down this week.
What's going to happen to the property once the church is gone?
"This will be open space and the land will be basically set up so that way if we do have heavy rains it will naturally flood and nothing will be in danger," Robinson said.
Funding for the demolition comes from a $1.2 million FEMA grant that pays to remove buildings that suffer repetitive flooding.
The county also has a funding program that pays to raise up buildings that could flood.
"So that way if they do get a flood, their homes are above the floodplain level and they're not in danger anymore," Robinson said.
Pastor Royer lived on this property with his wife and raised three kids here. He said it's tough seeing the sanctuary go.
"It's going to be a difficult day," Royer said.
Demolition crews are scheduled to begin tearing down the church Thursday morning at 7:30. The work is expected to be complete by the end of the day.
