California flood breaks levee; 8,500 under warning

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Residents of a northern California farming community known for growing strawberries were forced to evacuate Saturday morning after the Pajaro River levee broke due to flooding caused by an atmospheric system that hit the state.

On Monterey County’s Central Coast, more than 8,500 people were facing eviction orders and warnings as of Saturday, including about 1,700 residents, many of them Latino farmworkers, from the unincorporated community in Pajaro company.

Officials said the breach in the levee was about 100 feet (30.5 meters) wide. Crews had gone door-to-door on Friday afternoon urging residents to get out before the rains set in, but some stayed behind and had to be pulled out of the water early Saturday.

First responders and the California National Guard rescued more than 50 people overnight in Pajaro. Video showed a member of the Guard helping a driver out of a car stuck in waist-deep floodwater.

“We had hoped to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario came with the Pajaro River flooding and the levee breaking around midnight,” tweeted Luis Alejo, chairman of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

Alejo described the flooding as “massive” and estimated the damage will take months to repair.

The Pajaro River separates Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in the area flooded Saturday.

Officials had been working along the levee hoping to shore it up when it broke between midnight Friday and early Saturday morning. Crews began repairing the sea wall at dawn on Saturday as residents slept in evacuation centers.

The Pajaro Valley is a coastal agricultural area known for growing strawberries, apples, cauliflower, broccoli and artichokes. National brands like Driscoll’s Strawberries and Martinelli’s are based in the area.

In 1995, the Pajaro River levees broke, submerging 2,500 acres (1,011 hectares) of farmland and the community of Pajaro. Two people were killed and the flood caused damage of around $100 million. A state law, passed last year, earmarked public funds for a levee project. Its construction was to begin in 2024.

The storm marked the 10th atmospheric river of the state’s winter, storms that brought huge amounts of rain and snow to the state and helped ease dry conditions that had lasted three years. State reservoirs, which had reached shockingly low levels, are now well above average for this time of year, prompting state officials to release water from dams to help control flooding and make room for additional rain.

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Dazio reported from Los Angeles.