Pacheco Creek has two new levee breaches as of today, Emergency Services Manager Kevin O’Neill confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
“(The creek) is finally starting to go down,” O’Neill said in the late afternoon. “We’ve got two new levee failures. It’s still an evolving situation. We’re trying to get all the answers right now.”
Pacheco Creek also reached 19.5 feet Tuesday afternoon, he said, causing flooding over Lovers Lane and San Felipe Road. Historical data on creek water levels was not immediately available.
In a Facebook post this afternoon, the County Office of Emergency Services agency declared a voluntary evacuation for residents of Lovers Lane and San Felipe Road north of Shore Road due to flooding.
January rainfall and flooding caused the county to declare a local emergency due to conditions in the Lovers Lane area. Shortly after, Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed a State of Emergency for the county.
On Jan. 12, county inspection teams discovered a Pacheco Creek levee breach Jan. 12 northeast of the bridge on Lovers Lane. According to the Office of Emergency Services, that 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.
Last week, San Benito County hired two contractors to clear debris from Pacheco Creek and fix the original levee breach. Granite Construction will handle clearing debris from the creek, while Don Chapin Co. will handle fixing the levee. As of Feb. 1, excavators were in the area and pulled debris from the creek.
The county also contracted with Granite Rock to fix potholes in roads damaged by recent storms. Granite Rock will first focus on the Lovers Lane area and will move south from there.
There’s a possibility that contractor work will be on hold with the latest rains, O’Neill said.
“We probably won’t be able to do anything until next week,” he said. “We have some more rain coming and we have to let the ground dry out. Heavy equipment doesn’t do good in mud.”
Look back for more.
