Mother Nature has more rain in store for the region that could add damage to the already rugged roads, flooded homes and broken levees.
January rainfall and flooding caused the county to declare a local emergency due to conditions in the Lovers Lane area, as well as Shore Road and San Felipe Road. Shortly after, Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed a State of Emergency for the county.
County inspection teams discovered a Pacheco Creek levee breach on Jan. 12 northeast of the bridge on Lovers Lane. According to the Office of Emergency Services, the initial breach was located on private property and is around 100-feet long by 50-feet deep. Spillover from the Pacheco Reservoir also contributed to the flooding.
Two more levee breaches occurred on Feb. 7 when the creek reached around 19.5 feet. The week prior, San Benito County had hired three contractors to clear creek debris, fix the original levee breach and fix roads damaged by the storms. Excavators began pulling debris from the creek on Feb. 1, but work was halted as more rain moved through the area.
Emergency Services Manager Kevin O’Neill said the county is bringing in a consultant to examine the entire levee system.
“Right now we are hesitant to go in and do anything because of two reasons,” O’Neill said Tuesday. “One is we don’t own or operate that levee system. And two is, we don’t want to dump a bunch of money in and have it break somewhere else.”
National Weather Service Forecaster Steve Anderson said rain is expected to start between 6 a.m. and noon Thursday. The rain will continue into Friday.
One-quarter to half an inch of rain is expected to fall during that time, Anderson said. After the weekend, one to two inches of rain is expected next Monday through Wednesday.
San Felipe Road is still closed as a precaution, O’Neill said. While there is a sinkhole in the road, it’s been covered with metal plates. He addressed online speculation that the road could collapse.
“The road’s not going to collapse,” O’Neill said. “There’s very little shoulder, and the rain has eaten away at the road. But there’s nowhere to collapse. It’s not a bridge.”
