Flooding fears along California creek: ‘I’ve never seen the water like this’

The rain was coming down steadily as Jack Meadors, manager of Riverbend RV Park, stood outside and watched the Wild Wood Creek that cuts through the park steadily fill with rainfall.

Since 7 a.m., Meadors said, he had watched the water levels of the creek, about 5 feet deep, creep up. By 9 a.m., the creek was already beginning to overflow. Residents who had opted to stay behind began changing their minds, hauling their motor homes across the bridge before officials would close it off.

“It came up fast,” Meadors said as he stood outside the park’s office that sits near the creek. “You got all this rain still coming … Once it starts melting that snow, and if if rains more than that, which they’ve said it would, then we’re gonna get a lot more.”

Most of the estimated 60 or so residents had already evacuated or moved to the other side of the bridge in case they needed to leave quickly, Meadors said. He had spent Thursday helping residents move their trailers and motor homes. But by Friday morning, some were still trying to decide if they should leave while the bridge remained open.

“We tried to warn them the last few days,” Meadors said. “So we’ll just have to see.”

The first of two atmospheric river storms descended Friday on California, prompting widespread evacuation orders as it flooded creeks and rivers and dropped warm, heavy rain atop the state’s near-record snowpack.

Fresno County sheriff‘s deputies also stood around the creek arm Friday morning as they monitored conditions at the Sanger RV park, which is often an area of concern for flood risk. The park sits just east of Kings River, which officials are also monitoring for flooding.

But it was the creek that was causing concern among residents because once it crests over the bridge, deputies would close off access, and those remaining on the other side would be trapped until rescuers arrived, Meadors said.

Shanna Daggett, a travel nurse, took the day off work Friday in order to buy dry food for her dogs and be with them in case the water breeched her new relocated spot.

Daggett was among those who heeded Meadors’ early warning. In January when a storm caused the creek to overflow and creep up toward her RV, she had less than an hour to pack up her things and move across the bridge.

This time, she said, Meadors notified them Wednesday to start moving because the rain was expected to come down harder. So she moved across the narrow bridge and parked her truck and RV next to the park’s basketball court.

“I can ready my trailer in under 20 minutes. And that’s all I need is, I need a 20-minute heads up,” Daggett said.

One of her neighbors wasn’t so lucky and wasn’t able to move his mobile home, she said. White sand bags were packed around his home in an effort to keep it safe from the rising creek bed.

“I was a little scared … last night. Today I’m breathing better because everything’s situated for me,” Daggett said. “And in the worst worst case scenario, if I have no time, I just throw my dogs in the truck and go. I’ll leave everything behind.”

Another resident, Arnulfo, nervously paced around the RV park as the creek continued to rise.

Arnulfo, who declined to give his last name for privacy reasons, said in Spanish that he had decided to leave after hearing from the park’s management. But he was scared, he admitted, that all his belongings might get washed away.

“Since I’ve lived here I’ve never seen the water like this,” he said while standing near the creek. “I’m not staying. What if it floods? It will be more difficult [to leave].”

“I’m scared of losing all my things,” he said. “With the water, anything can happen.”

Debbie Weaver, 71, stood outside for a smoke break during a short pause in the rain. Weaver is from California but currently lives in Arizona, and she had spent the past week looking for houses in the Fresno area to move back.

She found the rain and flood warnings more unusual for the area than anything, she said. She had already reparked her truck and motor home near the basketball court, near Daggett, but her daughter’s trailer sat across the bridge, unmoved but situated on higher ground.

“There’s moving people a lot, more than last time,” Weaver said.

“They think it’s going to come up to the basketball court,” Daggett said while taking one of her foster dogs for a walk during the rain respite.

“You can see how fast it’s peaking,” Weaver said.

“It wasn’t like that 30 minutes ago,” Daggett said. Weaver agreed.

If the creek continued to rise, Weaver said, she could hitch her trailer and drive off. But she was worried about her daughter’s trailer.

“Hopefully it doesn’t crest up over there,” she said. “But I don’t know.”