• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

No Room for All That Rain: Storm Forces Hundreds to Evacuate in Merced, Threatens Dinuba Area.

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Mark Grossi, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Apr. 5--A lingering two-day storm Tuesday rained and hailed on Central California, triggering nerve-racking floods in Madera and Tulare counties and a mudslide that closed a section of Highway 168 near Shaver Lake.

Merced County was hit the hardest, with flooding that triggered hundreds of trailer park and home evacuations, rescues of immobile elderly residents, a school closing and declaration of a state of emergency.

No injuries were reported, but the rain pushed Bear Creek over its banks in five places, and Black Rascal and Fahrens creeks also overflowed.

A 20-foot breach of the El Capitan Canal led to flooding in the Ashby Road-Beachwood area, with 2 feet or more of water in some places. The canal break has been repaired, but most of the overflow remains in the area.

Mark Theofanides, Merced County Fire Department spokesman, estimated 500 people were evacuated from the Beachwood-Franklin area. About 150 homes are involved, he guessed.

Three local mobile home parks also were hard hit.

The Merced Mariposa Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross opened two shelters -- at Merced High School and the Atwater Community Center -- to feed and house evacuees. About 300 meals had been served as of late Tuesday afternoon.

After a declaration of emergency Tuesday morning by Merced County supervisors, Sheriff Mark Pazin said he and state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, received support in Sacramento for future relief from the director of the state Office of Emergency Services and the Governor's Office.

Pazin and Theofanides said it's too early to calculate dollar losses, but damage assessments would be conducted starting today.

Closer to Fresno, federal authorities continued to release 8,000 cubic feet of water per second from Millerton Lake -- enough in a single day to supply a city of 64,000 for a year. Like most reservoirs in the area, Millerton does not have enough room for snowmelt and future storm water.

The extra water is swelling the San Joaquin River. On both sides of the river, officials prepared to evacuate mobile parks should the need arise. But flooding was not a problem late Tuesday afternoon.

With a snowpack 142% of average and two more storms on the way, more water will be arriving soon. The National Weather Service said the wet April would take only a short break Thursday.

"We probably will get scattered showers [today]," said meteorologist Gary Sanger of the National Weather Service. "The forecast is for a dry Thursday. The next storm is forecast for Friday."

Steady rain showers stopped by midday Tuesday, and cold air moved into the San Joaquin Valley in the afternoon. Thunderstorms developed in Merced County, as well as near Kingsburg, Sanger, Reedley, Dinuba and Orange Cove, according to the weather service.

Fresno already has surpassed the 0.76 of an inch average rainfall for April. By 11 p.m. Tuesday, the city had recorded 0.86 of an inch since midnight. That raised the total for the month to 1.84 inches and brought the seasonal total to 12.87 inches, also well beyond the 10-inch average for this time of year.

City officials Tuesday prepared to open a shelter for anyone who needed to leave a mobile home along the river, even though the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was not increasing its flood release.

"It's pretty scary if you live there, because the water is creeping up," said Fresno City Council President Jerry Duncan.

The warm rain showers that started Sunday saturated the foothills, causing rocks and mud to wash onto the four-lane section of Highway 168, southwest of Shaver Lake.

The section will remain closed until further notice, according to Jose Camarena of the California Department of Transportation.

He said Caltrans engineers and California Highway Patrol officials were working together to determine when the highway would be safe enough to reopen.

Camarena said the damage was reported shortly after 9:30a.m. on the right-hand lane of the eastbound traffic lanes and that motorists initially were allowed to get through on the other lanes.

After further study, officials decided about 11 a.m. to shut down all four lanes and direct traffic. Motorists can take the old Tollhouse Road or Auberry Road for access to Shaver Lake.

"Local traffic has been using those roads already for years," he said.

The rain also caused a variety of flooding headaches throughout the Valley.

At Noah's Friends Animal Shelter north of Orange Cove, the Hills Valley Creek flooded about half of the shelter's 31 dog kennels, said owner Kay Nelson.

Nelson said 15 of the 60 dogs on the property were taken to the former Animal Rescue of Fresno. About a half-dozen others were picked up by supporters of the shelter and taken to their homes. Nelson was seeking permission Tuesday afternoon to house the rest at the Fresno Fairgrounds.

Nelson said the kennels were left in about 4 inches of water. It will be about two weeks before the animals can be returned.

In rural Madera County near Chowchilla, several homes were evacuated late Tuesday because the Berenda Slough was expected to jump its banks early this morning.

Elsewhere in Merced, flooding closed Highway 140 at North Buhach Road, and traffic was diverted on Thorton Avenue, before Thorton also was closed.

In Visalia, officials closed the westbound lanes of Goshen Avenue between Demaree and Akers streets so crews could pump water into storm drains.

Deputy City Manager Leslie Caviglia said the city opened its emergency operations center Monday night as a precaution to field calls for storm-related problems and began making sandbags available for worried residents at several locations throughout the city.

In northern Tulare County, crews worked Tuesday morning and afternoon placing sandbags around homes and schools in the communities of Yettem and Seville, said Mike Whitlock, engineer with the county Resource Management Agency.

Several roads were flooded, and schools in both towns were closed for the day. Whitlock said several channels and canals that weave through the area were overflowing because of the rain.

He said, "We can't afford much more rain or the situation could get a lot worse."

About 8:30 p.m., Tulare County officials were worried about water rising in Sand Creek, potentially putting at least 50 East Orosi homes in peril, said Eric Coyne, county media officer.

In addition, Coyne said Alta Irrigation District officials were expected to keep an eye on Wahtoke Lake near Dinuba. District officials were worried earlier in the evening that the lake would overflow, flooding Dinuba.

Voluntary evacuations were announced in several Cutler-Orosi neighborhoods about 6p.m. Tuesday, said Frank Spandler, assistant chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Tulare County unit.

Residents who chose to evacuate were sent to Orosi High School's multipurpose room where Red Cross staff set up supplies, said Nancy Loliva, media specialist for Tulare County Health and Human Services.

Bee reporters Sarah Jimenez and Tim Sheehan and the Merced Sun-Star contributed to this story. The reporters can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com, lgalvan@fresnobee.com or(559) 441-6330.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Fresno Bee

More News in this Category