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Felton Grove residents bracing for the next round of storms after destructive flooding
On Monday night, it's the calm before the next storm. Those who spoke with KTVU remember the Felton Grove floods of 1982 and 1998. They say they haven’t experienced anything like this since then, and unfortunately this time, they don’t know if or when the flooding will be over.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - On Monday night, it's the calm before the next storm. Those who spoke with KTVU remember the Felton Grove floods of 1982 and 1998. They say they haven’t experienced anything like this since then, and unfortunately this time, they don’t know if or when the flooding will be over.
The neighborhood in the Santa Cruz Mountains flooded Monday after the San Lorenzo River crested overnight due to heavy rains on Sunday.
"We had the worst flooding this morning and last night that we’ve had since 1998," said Liz Taylor-Selling, Chair of the Felton Grove Disaster Planning Committee.
The water was so high in the small logging community that first responders used jet skis to rescue people from their homes. Santa Cruz County issued an evacuation order Monday morning telling people to immediately move to higher ground.
"The water at this point, as of about 11:30 this morning, the water had receded. But what we are left with is about four to eight inches of silt and mud that is like quicksand," Taylor-Selling said.
Selling’s husband Dan says, although they’ve lived in the area for decades, he hasn’t gotten used to the flooding and no storm should ever be underestimated. Now he’s just waiting for it all to be over.
"What I’m doing now is just so if we have to bring the car in, we’re not dragging mud into the house. I’m not putting a lot of effort into the garage just yet. I’ve got a pickup truck, and I’ll just be making daily runs to the truck…so," Selling said.
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The latest storm also wreaked havoc on State Highways 9 and 17 which were closed temporarily because of mudslides. Selling says the Felton Grove community is resilient and just like before, they’ll regroup and rebuild.
"Some of us have been through this more than once. We know how to do this. The County has already promised us dumpsters down here, so that we can get rid of all the stuff that got ruined," Taylor-Selling said.
As resilient as this community seems to be, they haven’t forgotten that more rain is on the way. Some people have evacuated, others are just making sure they’re on higher ground and waiting for this barrage of storms to end.
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