LEMOORE, Calif. (AP) — Ron Caetano is packed up and ready to go. Family photos of him and his valuables are in the trailer and he has put food in bags. He moved the rabbits and chickens and their automatic feeders to higher ground.
He and his family and dogs could be out in less than an hour, they estimate, should heavy rains or hot weather melt so much snow from the mountains that the mass of water overflows the rivers and canals that surround their rural community in the central California and which give it its name, District of Islands.
“The water will come here,” said Caetano, who created a Facebook group to help organize his neighbors. “I’m preparing for the worst and I’m praying for the best, and that’s all we can do.”
After more than a dozen atmospheric rivers dumped epic rain and snowfall over California, a reservoir storing water upstream is slated to receive triple its capacity in the coming months. Caetano and his neighbors in the wooded District of Islands, home to a school, pistachio orchards, and horse ranches, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, could soon be cut off by rising rivers or be flooded
Water managers are concerned that spring snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada is so massive that the North Branch Kings River will not be able to contain it and carry it out into the Pacific Ocean. Much of the water is also being channeled into the southern branch of the river, which meanders around the area near the small town of Lemoore to fill a vast basin.
More than a century ago, that basin was a huge body of freshwater known as Tulare Lake, the largest lake west of the Mississippi River. Its water level increased in winter with the melting of the mountains. But over time, settlers built dams and diverted streams to irrigate crops, and the lake dried up. Now, Tulare Lake only reappears in the wettest years, like this one, covering what is now a wide swath of farmland with water.
David Merritt, general manager of the Kings River Conservation District, said the Pine Flat Reservoir, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) upstream, can hold up to 1 million acre-feet (1.233 million cubic meters) of water, but it is expected to receive more than 3.7 billion cubic meters (3 million acre-feet) this spring from snowmelt. Officials have been forced to increase the flow of water out of the reservoir to fit more, Merritt said.
“Once it reaches full capacity, there’s too much pressure on those conduction channels,” Merritt explained. “It’s a current that’s moving very fast and it’s very deep right now.”
Residents of the Islas District have revived a decades-old neighborhood network for the first time since 1983 to help each other in the event of a crisis. The last time the district’s Property Protection Partnership was activated, there was no text message or email to quickly spread news, said Tony Oliveira, a former county supervisor and network administrator.
In one week, more than 200 people volunteered to help neighbors online, and the group’s website received more than 4,000 hits.
“It’s going to be four months of nervousness,” Oliveira commented.
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Taxin reported from Orange County, California.
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