Santa Marians are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity between rain storms to stock up on supplies and fill up and place sandbags.
The city of Santa Maria advises residents to stay away from the Santa Maria River and flooded basins. Turn around if driving toward flood water; it can hide hazards.
The amount of record rain experienced in Monday’s storm in the Santa Maria Valley increased runoff from agricultural fields beyond what the flood control system is designed to handle, the city of Santa Maria said.
Santa Maria has so far been fortunate compared to other local communities such as Orcutt and Guadalupe, where homes were flooded.
More rain is predicted to come this weekend.
City leadership has spoken with the offices of U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, among other agencies, conveying the situation to them.
The city of Santa Maria continues to deploy resources to protect the public and to prevent or limit damage to property and infrastructure.
Today, the city is continuing to pump large amounts of runoff water from a flood control basin in the northwest portion of the Santa Maria.
This project is both to alleviate hazards to the neighborhood and also to make room for predicted weekend rain. The city, in cooperation with Santa Barbara County, is pumping water out of the large Blosser Basin, into the Blosser Channel, which discharges into the Santa Maria river to the north.
Resources are available. Residents may stay informed by using an interactive city road closure map posted at arcg.is/1evPrj1. This interactive map also has links to where to get free sand at five locations within the city.
Residents who need assistance with obtaining services from a federal agency can contact Rep. Carbajal’s office at carbajal.house.gov/constituent-services/casework or Sen. Dianne’s office at www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/submit-casework.
Those experiencing homelessness can contact the Warming Center Hotline at 805-324-2372.
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
