The Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river that lashed the state early on Saturday, forcing an agricultural community in Northern California known for its strawberry industry to evacuate.
More than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings across Monterey County on the Central Coast on Saturday, including around 1,700 residents, many of whom were Latino farmworkers, from the unincorporated village of Pajaro.
The levee break along the Pajaro River, according to officials, is around 100 feet (30.48 metres) wide. Workers had gone door to door on Friday in an effort to get people to leave before the rain came, but some resisted and had to be rescued early on Saturday from flooding.
California National Guard saved more than 50 people
Overnight, first responders and members of the California National Guard saved more than 50 people. In one video, a Guards is shown assisting a driver who has become stranded in a car with water up to their waists.
“We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight,” wrote Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, on Twitter.
Alejo called the flooding “massive,” saying the damage will take months to repair.
The Santa Cruz and Monterey counties are divided by the Pajaro River in the area that flooded on Saturday. Officials warned locals against drinking or cooking with tap water out of concern about possible pollutants of floodwaters that entered the area’s wells.
Before the levee was breached sometime between Friday and Saturday night at around midnight, officials had been working along it in an effort to shore it up. When residents slept in evacuation centres on Saturday morning, crews started working to repair the levee.
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