PAJARO — As murky brown floodwaters began receding from the inundated Monterey County farmworker community of Pajaro, residents grasped for aid Tuesday and voiced frustration at the possibility that they and thousands of other evacuees could remain out of their homes for weeks, possibly longer.
More than three days after the levee at the head of the Pajaro Valley burst, evacuees remained in a state of limbo while emergency crews worked to plug the rupture that had spilled water over 3 square miles of houses and farmland. Their work came as yet another atmospheric river storm hit California — exacerbating the region’s flood risk and further complicating efforts to bring an end to the crisis.
About 21,000 residents remain under evacuation orders or warnings across Monterey County, including 2,000 people forced from more than 800 homes in the community of Pajaro, according to Sheriff Tina Nieto. County officials opened two more shelters after the temporary housing at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds reached capacity — bringing the total number of shelters for displaced residents to seven.
For some longtime Pajaro locals, such as Juan Carlos Gomez, the impact of the disaster has only begun to sink in. Like hundreds of other people across the small town — largely populated by workers at nearby farms — Gomez was awakened by sirens and loudspeakers warning that the Pajaro levee breached and that flooding was imminent. He and his family fled without many of their important possessions, including their immigration papers.
Now, seeing pictures of all his belongings — the reclining armchairs, kitchen table, rugs, beds — completely ruined left him with a profound feeling of loss.
“I feel helpless,” said Gomez, whose family has been staying with a friend in Watsonville. “We’ve lost everything that we worked so hard to get. This is the first time since I came to this country in 2002 with nothing that I feel like I have nothing again.”
Monterey County officials announced progress Tuesday in fixing the levee, citing round-the-clock work that helped shrink the hole from about 365 feet wide to 20 feet by Tuesday afternoon. Dozens of dump trucks filled with rocks of various sizes lined up to get into the levee-repair site, working from the north side of the gap to lengthen a temporary barrier of rock about four feet higher than the floodwaters.
But a firm estimate for when the levee breach could be fixed remained elusive Tuesday, said Mark Strudley, executive director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency.
“There’s a lot of wild cards going on right now,” Strudley said. “There’s uncertainty with the weather and the river response and probably some uncertainties with the construction. They’re working under pretty dynamic conditions, with water running through.”
If one or more storms arrive next week as expected, the repaired section may function more as a weir than a levee if it hasn’t been brought up to the original levee height, Strudley said.
“There might be some spillover,” he added. “It’s meant to be a plug, but it might not be a perfect plug.”
The lack of clarity left residents anxious, frustrated and fatigued. For people who did not leave, all that remained was uncertainty.
Raul Garcia, Gomez’ neighbor, said the lack of potable water and food has forced him to book a hotel for him and his family of five for the next five days, spending about $535 he can’t afford. Garcia has been on unemployment for months.
The last time he worked, picking strawberries in the Pajaro Valley, was back in October, and with floodwaters overtaking most fields in the area, he estimates he’s not likely to return to work until late April or May. He said he doesn’t know how he’ll pay to repair his car or what’s next for him.
“Right now we should be on the fields, the fruit should be growing — but we are not the fields,” Garcia said. “It’s going to be hard this year, for everybody. It makes you feel desperate.”
Garcia said he’s also frustrated by the rules imposed on evacuees. Since choosing to stay in Pajaro after the levee broke, he said, he hasn’t been able to cross the bridge into Watsonville because police have said he won’t be able to return home. Likewise, those who did leave Pajaro are not allowed to cross the creek to go back.
“Some people are telling us it’s going to be a few weeks, some tell us a month, some tell us months, but what is the truth?” Garcia said. “We all feel lost and confused. What’s going to happen?”
Sheriff Nieto urged Pajaro residents who have chosen to remain in their houses to leave for their own safety, noting that floodwater still covers parts of the town, electricity remains off, and the water in Pajaro is not drinkable. Sheriff’s deputies arrested someone Monday believed to be looting a laundromat, Nieto said.
“We need people to leave,” Nieto said. “We’re not going to be delivering (water) to a closed area. There’s a risk to stay there, that’s why we closed the area.”
Meanwhile, nonprofit leaders also implored residents across the Bay Area to pitch in, citing a growing crisis that showed no signs of relenting.
“We don’t know how many cars will ever start again, we don’t know how many homes will be red-tagged,” said Susan True, CEO of Community Foundation Santa Cruz County. “Until the water recedes, it’s hard to get the actual count.”
They worked amid concerns of donor fatigue, given that the levee breach came on the heels of even more flooding in late December and January, as well as the coronavirus pandemic and wildfires in past years.
“You can detect there’s fear and a feeling of uncertainty,” said Ricardo Yerena, co-director of the nonprofit Raices Y Carino, which has been offering food and toiletries to evacuees. “There is a lot of blank stares coming in from people. There’s a lot of kids that come in that look like they’re afraid.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com