WATSONVILLE—Tempers ran high Tuesday evening at the Watsonville City Council meeting where residents of three of the city’s senior residential communities voiced their accounts of having to deal with the floods at the start of the year and the ongoing fallout.
After more than a dozen people spoke on a host of topics, including toxic mud issuing into neighborhoods from flooded farms, operation and proper maintenance of drainage pumps and back up generators, seniors calling 911 for help and being turned away, to an elderly woman who broke her leg trying to escape, the City Council agreed that a future “community meeting” would best suit the issue.
No date was set but all agreed to meet again with the public to further the discussion.
Though it was not the first such meeting, Tuesday brought into sharper focus the words of residents from Pajaro Village, Bay Village and Pajaro Vista—age 55 and up—who said they were not only dealt with—and in some cases, continue to deal with—dire emergencies, people also underscored the message that they were not being heard.
Andy Gonzalez said he helped his neighbors evacuate as floodwaters from Corralitos Creek quickly rose.
“People were leaving in canoes at 8 o’clock,” he told the council. “I’m here to tell you, we’ve got to take care of our elderly. On December 26 we had the biggest rain ever; we knew it was coming. We didn’t have enough people on duty.”
Lisa Martin said there were no warnings on New Year’s Eve regarding flood potential.
“The city knows how to respond but simply did not do so on New Year’s Eve,” she said. “Many of the residents of Bay Village would like to know why. We need to be able to identify what the problem was and that it doesn’t happen again.”
She said she and her daughter were eventually standing in waist-high water.
“There was nothing but the sound of rushing water and elderly residents on my street standing in their door with water entering, screaming for help,” Martin said.
Robin Spring said that after almost four months of the floods there has been almost no response to questions such as what happened, why and what went wrong and what is being done about it.
“We want to know; we want to hear: We don’t want to be told that everything is fine,” he said.
Jim Avis said there remains a lot of questions regarding proper draining and spoke of varying language regarding buffer zones or what the city calls retention ponds.
After his three-minute speaking limit was up, Avis had not finished covering the information he wanted to present, which he backed up with large photos. Several speakers also ran out of time and were cut off, based on meeting protocol.
Miles worth of the willow/bramble choked Pajaro river/levee area need to be excavated and dredged,, like a clogged pipe in your house needs to be roto-rootered…