Although sunshine interspersed with scattered showers are expected to last through Monday, another storm is expected to hit the Central Coast early Tuesday. The storm will bring up to eight inches of rain to the already-drenched Santa Cruz Mountains and at least three inches to the rest of Santa Cruz County.
The approaching storm has residents on edge as additional flooding remains a distinct possibility.
“Now is your time to prepare,” National Weather Service meteorologist Cindy Palmer says. “We encourage everyone to listen to emergency management officials if you live in an evacuation zone.”
The additional rains will add more water to the Pajaro area, which is suffering a major flood after the Pajaro River Levee breached early Saturday morning, inundating neighborhoods and agricultural fields and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
All streams and rivers are likely to rise and are at risk of reaching flood stage.
The Pajaro River was at 23.2 feet Monday, but is expected to reach 27.6 feet as a result of the storm.
The San Lorenzo River is predicted to spike to roughly 18 feet, well over the 16.5-foot flood stage.
Additionally, the county is under a high wind warning from 11pm Monday through 5am on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Hwy 1 remains closed from Salinas Road to Hwy 129 (Riverside Drive) due to the flooding.
There is no estimated time for reopening, the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) stated in a press release.
Drivers are urged to avoid travel in the area. Travelers may take Hwy 156 or 129 east to U.S. 101 to travel around the Hwy 1 closure.
Crews from the state’s emergency contractor are on-site at the 120-foot breach in the Pajaro River Levee as they prepare to shore up the break with boulders and riprap from the nearby Graniterock quarry in Aromas, Lew Bauman of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency says.
It’s unknown how long it will take workers to shore up the levee.
“They will be working 24/7 to make as much progress as they can prior to the next rain event,” Bauman says.
During a Zoom press conference, Nieto says the water continues to rise in Pajaro, and rescue workers will soon have to switch to boats to reach stranded residents.
No deaths or injuries have been reported, according to Nieto.
“We have a whole community under water,” she says, adding that she had just returned from Pajaro to aid the efforts. “It’s a holy moly situation, but my language would be a lot more colorful.”
County officials anticipate that further evacuation orders around Pajaro may be announced soon due to the rising waters and another atmospheric river weather event expected to hit the region this week.
Due to the flooding that impacted drinking water facilities, the drinking water supplied by Pajaro Water System is possibly contaminated. Pajaro residents are advised not to use the tap water for drinking and cooking until further notice.
235 people are taking shelter at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, according to county officials.
Emergency shelters are open at the following locations:
• Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, 2061 East Lake Ave., Watsonville
• Compass Church, 10325 S. Main St., Salinas
• Holy Trinity Church Hall, 27 South El Camino Real, Greenfield
• Salvation Army Contra Costa, 1491 Contra Costa Blvd, Seaside
Temporary Evacuation Points, where evacuees can make transportation arrangements:
The breach continues to impact surrounding infrastructure: As of 10am Sunday, the northbound lanes of Hwy 1 have been shut down from Salinas Road to Hwy 129 (Riverside Drive).
At 10:30am, the California Highway Patrol shut down the southbound lanes, too.
There is no estimate on when the road will reopen. Visit roads.dot.ca.gov for the latest on road closures.
An estimated 100-foot-wide breach in the Pajaro River Levee has sent floodwaters into the community of Pajaro, forcing the evacuation of roughly 1,700 residents and causing untold damage to the homes, businesses and farm fields in the rural, agricultural community.
On Friday crews were working along the levee, trying to lessen the impact of possible breaches, Monterey County officials said.
The National Guard helps evacuate residents impacted by the Pajaro River flooding. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
Despite their efforts, the breach in the levee happened around midnight near Murphy Crossing Road according to Mark Strudley, executive director for Pajaro Regional Flood Management.
It was shortly after midnight on Saturday night that local resident Andreas Garcia and his family got notice to evacuate. The family grabbed what they could but found the shelter at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds full.
“Right now we’re living out of our cars parked here in Watsonville,” Garcia said. “I lived through the flood of ‘95, too. That was a lot worse. Many of us did not want to evacuate because of looting. Last month when people left some had their homes broken into.”
The evacuation site at the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds reached capacity last night, but has since opened up an additional building to accommodate evacuees. Shelter space in Salinas is reaching capacity as officials move to open more.
Capt. Curtis Rhodes of Cal Fire said officials were helping evacuate people all night. By his estimate, dozens of homes and businesses have flooded.
Local agencies along with the National Guard are also on the scene, bringing families and their belongings to safety through the flooded streets of Pajaro.
By 9:30am on Saturday hundreds of people, many of them with young children, swarmed atop the Main Street Bridge between Pajaro and Watsonville, anxious to check on family members and their homes. Streets in the surrounding areas of the Watsonville side of the bridge had turned into a crowded parking lot overnight by evacuees.
Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo, who spent Friday warning residents that an evacuation was possible, said that floodwaters reached two feet in some places.
“My heart hurts, because I know the suffering that the residents of Pajaro are going through again,” Alejo said. “Many who endured the 1995 flood, they are now enduring this one.”
Efforts to rebuild the levee to offer protection to the communities on both sides of the Pajaro River have been ongoing for years.
In October, officials from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and from the City of Watsonville gathered alongside the Levee to celebrate the funding for a $400 million project that will give 100-year flood protection to the area.
The water has slowed, Alejo said, but another atmospheric river storm expected Tuesday is kindling new flooding concerns and will possibly hinder repair work.
“The amount of water is massive, and it’s much worse because of the ground saturation causing more water to run off into the Pajaro River,” Alejo said. “And that’s why I believe the levee could not hold and sustain itself under that pressure that existed in the river.”
Alejo said the evacuation will put an additional strain on the residences and businesses in Pajaro, which were already displaced for eight days in January after a series of atmospheric river storms.
Alejo said he has already urged Monterey County staff to reach out to state and federal officials to request funding necessary to help residents cope in both the near and long-term effects of the flood.
“It’s just unfortunate to see Pajaro go through this once again,” he said. “Now they’re in a worse situation, and we believe it’s going to take months based on experience to get those homes repaired so they can be habitable again.”
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The Monterey Salinas Transit is transporting community members in the evacuation zone to shelters.
These include:
Santa Cruz Fairgrounds, 2061 E. Lake Blvd, Watsonville.
Salinas at Compass Church,10325 S. Main Street.
A temporary evacuation center at the Prunedale Library, 17822 Moro Rd.
Beth McCullough and her son Journey Legen came to the emergency shelter at Cabrillo College in Aptos on Thursday night when the shelter they hoped to stay in Santa Cruz filled up.
Originally from Bakersfield, both are homeless. They were among 10 people who were turned away from other shelters.
“It was really stormy out last night,” McCullough says. “This was such a blessing to have this open up.”
McCullough and Legen sat at a folding table Friday afternoon, eating sandwiches from nearby Erik’s Deli.
They were among roughly 10 people who availed themselves of the shelter Thursday night, where they had access to showers, bottled water, breakfast, and lunch, both provided by nearby Twin Lakes Church.
Darcy Pruitt, managing the shelter, said 45 beds were available. It was set to close Friday at 6pm as Watsonville lifted evacuation orders.
Arnold Granados, 71, stretched out on a cot inside the Crosetti Building at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds as he prepared for a night away from the wind and rain.
“I’ve been homeless for the past six months, so a warm, dry night means a lot,” Granados says.
The Veterans Hall in Watsonville was set to close on Saturday morning. However, Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds is expected to remain open, as evacuation orders for Pajaro were still in effect on Friday afternoon.
The San Lorenzo River stayed two feet below what was predicted, and while the Pajaro River was not expected to reach flood stage, officials were closely monitoring it.
Residents gather on Main Street Bridge on the morning of March 11. The Pajaro Levee reportedly broke. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
Waters also flowed onto East Lake Avenue and College Road, both closed. Highways 129 and 152 were also closed, tying up Friday commuter traffic for hours.
More than 1,000 Soquel residents are trapped in their neighborhood after raging waters tore away a huge chunk of Main Street early Friday morning.
According to Santa Cruz County spokesman Jason Hoppin, the damage began early Friday morning. Bates Creek, which flows under North Main Street just north of Pringle Lane, washed away the 6-foot culvert that ran under the road.
County officials called an emergency contractor which began dumping tons of rock into the culvert in hopes of creating a temporary one-lane road.
If that plan works, the road could be open as early as Saturday morning. If not, workers plan to build a temporary bridge, which will take about two days, Hoppin said.
Neighbors trapped beyond the closure are now walking a circuitous path through a neighbor’s property, who was allowing access over a small wooden footbridge.
Roughly 450 homes lie beyond the closure, and about 40 residents who do not have wells were without water Friday. Workers from Soquel Creek Water District are working to restore their service.
Katie Bauer, who lives in Berkeley, was visiting family for the weekend when the road washed out. She is now unsure how she will get back to work on Sunday.
“I’m surprised—this is worse than it was on New Year’s,” she said. “I didn’t think the road would be fully washed out.”
Matt Lucas brought his 3-year-old son Nolan to see the excavator and rock-hauler trucks as they worked to bridge the gap.
“They said it was going to be a big storm and it delivered last night,” he said.
Lucas said that the county had already looked at the culvert after the storms in January.
“It’s a little bit of a bummer that they didn’t see this one coming, or had somebody keep their eye on it,” he said.
Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker expressed his appreciation for how quickly the County reacted to the incident. While a temporary repair will come soon, he said that a permanent fix is still a ways away.
“Obviously, this is going to be a long-term repair,” he said.
Watsonville officials issued expanded evacuation warnings late Thursday night as floodwaters have shut down numerous streets in the city.
The expanded evacuation warnings include E. Front and White streets south of Riverside Drive, and near the intersection of Green Valley and Holohan roads.
The City of Watsonville issued evacuation orders for several streets west of Corralitos Creek on Thursday night. The evacuated areas include Union, Lincoln and Marchant streets, north to East Lake Avenue.
Roads closed as of Friday morning include:
• East Lake Avenue west of Bridge Street
• Holohan Road near Corralitos Creek
• Green Valley Road at Holohan Road
• Tuttle Street
• Almond Drive
• Cynthia Drive
• Delta Drive
• Vivienne Street
On Thursday night, Watsonville Police drove through Pajaro Village and other areas, announcing mandatory evacuations over the public address system. Watsonville Firefighters continue to patrol the Pajaro Village and Bay Village neighborhoods.
The National Weather Service reported that Ben Lomond has gotten over 5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. And the rain is still falling.
East Lake Avenue, west of Bridge Street, is closed off due to flooding. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
“The band of heaviest rain will move southward towards Santa Cruz and Monterey mid-morning,” the weather service predicted. “Once this band of convection reaches the Big Sur Coast and the Santa Lucia Mountains, chances for very efficient rainfall become high due to the orientation of the warm conveyor belt of moisture.”
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation warning for residents in low-lying areas, including parts of Soquel, Paradise Park and the area around Aptos Creek that could see flooding.
Storm drains in Pajaro Village are backed up and overflowing. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
Meanwhile, FEMA sent an email stating, “Disaster Recovery Centers in Watsonville and Santa Cruz proper are closed today due to the weather conditions.”
Los Tigres del Norte: Historias Que Contar is the story of the Norteño band who came to San Jose in the 1960s with not much more than the clothes on their backs and ballads about farmworkers, immigration and narco-violence. Since their arrival, the group has sold over 60 million records and won six Grammys and 12 Latin Grammys.
The Los Tigres screening is co-presented by the Mexican Consulate of San José and UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive. There will be a Q&A with director Carlos Perez Osorio, whose Netflix series “The Taco Chronicles” continues to grow in popularity worldwide.
Saturday, March 11, at 7pm at the Mello Center.
Frontera Collection Curator and DJ Juan Antonio Cuellar will host an after-party with selections from the 32,000 Spanish-language songs digitized and preserved by UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center—funded by a $500,000 grant from the Los Tigres del Norte Foundation with support from the Bay Area’s Arhoolie Records.
Saturday, March 11, 9pm at El Alteño Restaurant
Sansón & Me is an internationally-acclaimed, award-winning documentary about an unusual friendship between a young immigrant caught up in California’s criminal justice system and his court interpreter. Director Rodrigo Reyes will present the film, followed by a Q&A.
Saturday, March 11, 1pm at the Mello Center
Santos: Skin to Skin is a portrait of seven-time Grammy nominee John Santos, a “keeper of the Afro-Caribbean flame,” who connects the drum rhythms to past and present struggles for social justice and cultural identity. Filmmakers Katryn Golden and Ashley James will be on hand to discuss their award-winning film.
Saturday, March 11, 4pm at the Mello Center (co-presented by Kuumbwa Jazz of Santa Cruz)
“After all we’ve been through over the past three years, we wanted to make this year’s festival free and accessible to everyone on a donation basis,” WFF co-founder and executive director Consuelo Alba says. “This is possible thanks to our generous sponsors and supporters who truly understand our vision.”
“We still have a lot to get through overnight,” Garcia says.
The city of Watsonville late Thursday issued evacuation orders for several streets west of Corralitos Creek at risk for flooding in advance of storms expected Thursday night.
The evacuated areas include Union, Lincoln and Marchant streets, north to East Lake Avenue.
Just half an inch fell on Thursday, but the already saturated ground has sent much of the water into the San Lorenzo River–which is already seeing a sharp rise–raising new flood concerns. And several more inches are expected over the next 18 hours, he says.
“We’re already seeing that churn up, just with half an inch of rain up in the mountains,” he says. “So that just speaks to how wet the soils already are, that they cannot absorb any more moisture.”
Soquel Creek was beginning to rise Thursday afternoon, and officials will monitor that, along with Corralitos Creek and the Pajaro River, which is not expected to reach flood stage.
In addition, winds are expected to knock over trees across the county, Garcia said.
Garcia’s message to the community is to heed evacuation orders if they come and to protect yourself as much as possible.
“If you haven’t taken preparations by now to get yourself to a safe location or to harden your structure, it’s probably too late at this point,” he says.
County officials issued evacuations for several areas of unincorporated Santa Cruz County. Still, Undersheriff Chris Clark says there is a “high likelihood” that those warnings could transition to orders overnight.
