FELTON — Tom Fredericks was shoveling mud from his garage — a stone’s throw from the temperamental San Lorenzo River that inundated his street Monday morning and filled his garage with four feet of water — when a visitor stopped by and remarked about the stricken town’s scenic beauty.
It reminded Fredericks how much he loves the little Santa Cruz County hamlet of Felton, nestled along the river near a 19th-century historic covered bridge, surrounded by horse stables, parks, a steam train and acres of majestic coast redwood trees, even though it can be a hard place to live.
“It’s a really sweet spot,” said Fredericks, 75, a retired director and fundraiser for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
Felton wasn’t showing its sweet side early Monday. Torrential rains swelled the river to 8 feet above its flood stage, a level topped only by epic storms of January 1982 that triggered deadly mudslides in Ben Lomond a few miles upriver. More rain was forecast Tuesday and this weekend.
By dawn, the rain-gorged San Lorenzo was surging just below the quaint bridges that cross it as it winds through the town, including the 80-foot covered bridge built in 1892. The river filled the streets in Fredericks’ Felton Grove neighborhood deep enough to cover stop signs.
In one of the homes farthest from the raging river, Linda and Al Orengo gazed out on their back porch with amazement. Brown water was flowing through their back yard fence and covered a picnic table. Hours earlier, it had risen to the top of sandbags stacked three high in front of their back doors.
They had been awakened at 5 a.m. by public safety crews pounding on the door urging them to evacuate. But the water mostly stayed outside, and the Orengos chose to stay put until they receded.
“We’re seaworthy,” said Linda Orengo, 69. “We sandbagged the house.”
Linda Orengo said she and her husband moved into the home five years ago and had only recently experienced flooding there. Their Felton Grove neighborhood association had met before the storms arrived to share advice and tips on how to prepare.
But Monday’s deluge arrived earlier than expected, and despite their preparations, Linda Orengo felt uneasy hearing the “pelting” rain pouring down early in the morning.
“Last night was the worst of it — I was worried it was going to come into the house,” she said.
They were more fortunate than some of their neighbors.
“There’s one person down the road here who has their 90-year-old mother living with them, and they brought in a Sea Doo to get her out,” Linda Orengo said. Other neighbors just hunkered down.
“It’s hard, you know. Mother Nature’s going to take over,” she said. “There’s only so much you can do. Just prepare yourself as best you can.”
A New Year’s Eve downpour also caused flooding when it filled the river nearly as high. Floods come so regularly during wet years that the Federal Emergency Management Agency decades ago offered residents aid in elevating their homes to withstand the water. Fredericks and his wife, who moved there in 2000, were among the first to take the feds up on it.
On top of floods, the town also faces threats from earthquakes and fires. The deadly 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was centered in the nearby mountains, and the 2020 CZU Lightning fires prompted evacuations in Felton.
Jason Dietz and his wife, Rachel, a lifelong Felton resident, have lived in Felton Grove for 20 years, and he can tick off each flood year: 1998, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2022 and now the first month of 2023.
The couple, who have a 13-year-old son, are staying with friends in nearby Scotts Valley. But they already have evacuated twice in a little more than a week. He works in construction and property management and had set his tools and equipment four feet above ground level to protect them from flooding this week. It wasn’t high enough.
“We’re done, we’re selling,” Dietz, 48, said as he looked at his flooded home. “It seems like they’re getting more frequent. We’re just tired of dealing with it. I love California, but it’s so expensive. We’ve got a lot of community, but everyone’s moving. For what we can sell this place for, you can get a palace in Ohio.”
Al Orengo sympathized as he and Dietz looked out from his porch at their inundated neighborhood.
“Why would you leave beachfront property?” he joked.
But Fredericks said although Monday’s flooding was worse than before, he feels secure in a home built to withstand it, though at his age he says he may hire out help with the cleanup next time.
“This is the price you pay,” he said, “for a really nice place.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com