This winter’s first major rain is here — a slow-moving Pacific storm that is expected to linger over the Central Coast for the next four days, bringing more than an inch of rain in some places.
But unlike last winter’s relentless atmospheric rivers, this system is not expected to cause flooding in the region, and should taper off to warm and clear weather by Saturday afternoon.
Still, officials are already preparing for the wetter storms that may lie ahead. At the Carmel River Lagoon, Cal Fire workers are filling and stacking sandbags that would help protect nearby homes. The lagoon is little more than a pond most of the year, but during heavy winter rains, the river swells and floods the area.
“It’s a lot of water,” said Monterey County Public Works Director Randall Ishii.
Much of the work preparing for this winter’s storms is cleaning up debris from last winter’s storms. The county has already spent $50 million on repairs and debris removal this year.
“Just from the January events alone, we're projecting that approximately more than 82,000 cubic yards of material needed to be cleared from the drainage ditches or from county culverts,” Ishii said.
That’s in addition to the 50,000 cubic yards of debris from the rains in March.
The public works department has also restored the protective areas around the Chualar treatment ponds. The treatment plant was damaged during last winter storms.
The County is providing sand and sandbags to residents of flood prone areas.
