Santa Cruz County Supervisor Felipe Hernandez, at the podium, addresses reporters along with Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, Watsonville Mayor Eduardo Montesino and Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo. —Tarmo Hannula/The Pajaronian

PAJARO—A cadre of elected and public officials gathered in Pajaro late Sunday morning to issue a dire warning in advance of a rainstorm expected to begin Sunday night and bring possible major flooding to Monterey and Santa Cruz counties through Tuesday.

The messages, delivered in English, Spanish and Mixteco, were simple: prepare for the possibility of flooding, keep updated with the latest information and heed evacuation orders if they come.

“We need everybody in both of these communities to take this storm seriously,” Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, whose district includes parts of Watsonville.

As much as six inches of rain is expected to fall in Santa Cruz County through Tuesday, with possible gusts as high as 80 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service. The Santa Cruz Mountains could see as much as seven inches.

If the rains come as predicted, the Pajaro River has a 60% chance of reaching flood stage, said Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency Director Mark Strudley. The waters in that river reached 22 feet during the storm on Dec. 31, 10 feet below flood stage. 

Workers in both Monterey and Santa Cruz County have reinforced the Pajaro River Levee with so-called Muscle Wall, a temporary barrier that can raise the level of levees during flood events. 

Corralitos Creek is expected to overtop its banks–as it did during the Dec. 31 storm–again putting the neighborhoods at risk.

Santa Cruz County has not yet issued evacuation warnings, but officials on Sunday they are likely.

The City of Watsonville issued a flood advisory on Jan. 7.

While both Monterey and Santa Cruz counties have worked hard to mitigate their flood risk, the possibility of flooding is very real, Friend said. 

“We will do everything we can to get through this together, but we need people to understand that this is a very serious event, and it may be the kind of flooding we haven’t seen here in the last generation,” he said. “Your family matters too much, your life matters too much, your community matters too much.”

Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto has issued evacuation warnings for the Pajaro area, and said that flooding along the Big Sur and Carmel rivers is likely. 

“Now is the time to prepare for evacuation when the order comes out,” she said. “It’s not an if, but there is a great possibility we will be giving orders.”

To see if your neighborhood is included in the warning, visit community.zonehaven.com.

To register for emergency alerts, visit scr911.org or text SCR911 to 99411.

•••

Resources

Santa Cruz County

Disaster information

For a storm preparedness checklist, click here

Pet evacuation information

Sign up for Code Red alerts at scr911.org

Monterey County

Emergency services information

Previous articleGrizzlies highly optimistic following speedy start | PCAL boys soccer preview
Next articlePVUSD closes all schools in advance of storm
General assignment reporter, covering nearly every beat. I specialize in feature stories, but equally skilled in hard and spot news. Pajaronian/Good Times/Press Banner reporter honored by CSBA. https://pajaronian.com/r-p-reporter-honored-by-csba/

5 COMMENTS

    • You won’t hear from him for a while as he is bailing out his palace in pajama village. All his friends at the COW take special care of the seniors there. Or possibly they let it flood out in the hopes that our friend will move back to Capitola? Your thoughts?

    • You won’t hear from him for a while as he is bailing out his palace in pajama village. All his friends at the COW take special care of the seniors there. Or possibly they let it flood out in the hopes that our friend will move back to Capitola? Your thoughts?

  1. Little maintenance to the drainers through
    the year, the sweeter only 2 times a month, less help to cleans on the ditches
    so lees money to those task to many goes to much to benefits for employee:
    increases, holidays, retirements, health insurance, etc. but less money to the
    community for cleaning and maintenance to prevent it. Authorities said “We need
    everybody in both of these communities to take this storm seriously” my
    answer will be please you authorities should take this seriously since years
    back. Cleaning and maintenance of Pajaro River, ditches, sewerages, strainers, etc.
    in order to avoid flood worries.

    • You can thank do nothing politicians like Lowell Hurst and Jimmy “two step” Dutra for their contributions in the past

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here