The San Benito County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting Jan. 17, in accordance with a local ordinance, to ratify the emergency services proclamation announced Jan. 12 by Kevin O’Neill, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Services (OES).
O’Neill related to the supervisors how on Jan. 6 a major storm began to impact the area and culminated Jan. 12, when the northern portion of the county began to experience catastrophic flooding.
“In the board’s and CAO’s (county administrative officer) absence, I proclaimed a local emergency for the county,” he said. “When that type of action is taken the Board of Supervisors, if you are in agreeance, must ratify it within seven days, and that’s why we’re here.”
O’Neill said OES is anticipating more storms, beginning Wednesday, with the heaviest rains arriving Wednesday night, and continuing to Thursday morning. He said he had spoken to weather forecasters and was told that they expect 2 to 2 ½ inches of rain to fall on San Benito County over the next six days.
“The governor has not proclaimed a state of emergency for our county or any other county,” he said, “however, we’re optimistic that will be coming. With that will be an opportunity for the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA), which provides financial assistance to public entities, such as the county.”
Mark Medina, supervisor of District 1, which includes the impacted Lovers Lane and surrounding rural areas, said the major concern was the next storm and how it would affect streets, homes and properties still reeling from the last rains. He said there would be a community meeting later that night (Wednesday, Jan. 17), at 7 p.m., at Shore Road and Lovers Lane to determine what assistance residents might need.
Supervisor Robert Rivas asked O’Neill if he could describe the extent of cost to the county and what to expect once Governor Jerry Brown declares the county a disaster area, as is expected. O’Neill said it is too early to have an accurate accounting of damages and potential costs.
“There was definitely damage to San Felipe Road and Lovers Lane,” he said. “There are still parts of Lovers Lane, as of yesterday, that are still under water. We’re pretty confident there is some significant damage.”
O’Neill explained that he, along with Brent Barnes, Resource Management Agency director, would be accompanying someone from the state Department of Water Resources later in the day to survey the break in the Pacheco Creek levee that led to the flooding.
“A lot of the clearing out of the creek, the buildup of debris, the levee break, a lot of it’s on private property, so it’s hard to get an estimate at this point,” O’Neill said. “In terms of the homes and the losses (residentes) suffered, we’re putting out a survey to gather information on what they lost, if they have flood insurance, what it covers. If we do get to the point where the governor calls the president to proclaim a major disaster in the area, that opens up funding for individual assistance.”
Barnes went over some immediate concerns, explaining again that the damaged levee is on private property, which hampers the county’s access. The major water issue, he said, was “over-topping,” of Pacheco Creek, which he described as a, “natural condition of too much water,” and also happened on private property. He did say the county was willing to assist the property owners.
“Infrastructure wise, we have one bridge on San Felipe Road that will need to be replaced,” he said. “It’s compromised and the guard rails are in the creek. It cannot be repaired and must be replaced.”
Barnes said there was also significant damage along San Felipe Road where several hundred feet of shoulder washed away. He also said that a half mile or more of Lovers Lane will need to be replaced.
“That’s what we know about and there may be other things,” he said, and added, “Scattered around the county there were some minor slides involving rock falls and trees down. We’ve not found any other major damage.”
In addition to funding infrastructure repairs, O’Neill went on to explain that the CDAA would also refund costs for staff time, overtime, and numerous items, such as sandbags.
“All those little things add up and it helps to cover that loss for the county,” he said. “Essentially, when the governor declares a state of emergency he can then choose what kind of assistance he offers. That’s what we’ve been pushing for and we’re hoping to get some word from his office.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho, who owns property in the affected area, recalled the flood of 1997, and described the most recent flood as substantially more destructive.
“One of the things I want to point out to the public is that the county did what we could do to prepare ourselves for this rain event,” he said. “Of course, we did it last year when we thought we were going to get hit by El Niño. We got permits to clear out the approaches to the bridges. That probably helped, but the fact remains the Pacheco Creek, historically, had been cleared out by property owners, and levee maintenance was done every two years with everybody working together. That’s not happening anymore because of different environmental rules that don’t allow public agencies or property owners to do the proper level of maintenance. And here we are with a big bill.”
Botelho said he remembered that the cost of repairing the break in the levee in 1997 was hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We face the same thing today,” he said. “I’m aware of a couple neighbors doing what they can to shore up the levee in preparation of the rest of the rainy season. I hope the governor will come to our assistance—soon. We could get out there and provide the proper level of protection of lives and property.”
Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz thanked Medina for his efforts during the storm to help his constituents. He also complimented O’Neill and the emergency responders.
“It’s good to know we have a professional staff that can react at any time,” De La Cruz said. “I want to commend the staff, the community, and the search and rescue team that did a wonderful job.”
After the meeting, Medina said even before thinking about how to possibly fix the problem he is concentrating on the next few days.
“I’m preparing for the storm coming right now,” he said, “to make sure we can provide safety for the next couple days. After that, I will be engaging with the agencies to see what we can do to clear out the creek to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
In addition to providing sandbags at the 7 p.m. meeting tonight, the county will be monitoring the creeks.
“If they hit a certain level we’ll try to do a reverse 9-1-1 call to evacuate those along Lovers Lane,” Medina said.
As homeowners and renters start clearing out their homes, Medina said Recology has donated mini-bins. He said residents only need to call the company and it will haul away the bins free of charge. For larger items, such as damaged furniture and appliances, he said the county needs to discuss what might be done.
“I might call the landfill and ask if they’d be willing to help out with flood relief,” he said.
While not part of the meeting, Spring Grove School parent Kristina Chavez Wyatt said the school and the parent-teacher organization gathered $6,600 to give to flood victims.
“They delivered the money and gift cards directly to families impacted by the flood,” she said.
Spring Grove School posted on its Facebook page: “Today, we received over $6,600 in cash, checks, and gift cards. Southside School, the San Benito County Office of Education, our local churches, families who attended Spring Grove 40 years ago, a Girl Scout troop, Target, and those who read about the donations on Facebook have all turned out to donate blankets, towels, socks, clothes, baby items, personal products, money and gift cards for our families. The generosity of our community is overwhelming!”
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