Mar 22, 2023

California farms statewide hit by storms and floods

Warm atmospheric river storms wreaked havoc on California last week, causing widespread flooding from rain and snowmelt, which overfilled rivers and creeks, displaced residents, washed out roads and damaged agriculture.

In Tulare County, flooding forced farmers to evacuate cows and the current carried silt and debris into citrus groves. In Monterey County, water flooded leafy greens and berries. The storm impacted livestock and feed crops in northern California counties, such as Humboldt.

Farmers in Tulare County said they worked in shifts to address flooding in communities downstream of the Tule River, which feeds into Lake Success near Porterville, and downstream of the Kaweah River, which feeds into Lake Kaweah near Lemon Cove.

Zack Stuller, a Tulare County farm manager, said responding to flooding has been a countywide effort to plug holes in streambanks, remove debris and monitor for any emerging problems.

“We rounded up as many dump trucks as we could, and as many guys with dozers and excavators, and we worked 24 hours straight,” Stuller said. “We got permission and put Yokohl Creek back together ourselves.”

In Monterey County, there was significant flooding along the Salinas River and two levee breaks along the Pajaro River. Residents of Pajaro, including farmworkers, were evacuated. Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Pajaro last week to view the damage and meet with government leaders and first responders.

Monterey County Farm Bureau executive director Norm Groot said he expects agricultural damage to exceed the $336 million caused by storms that hit the region in January, affecting 15,705 acres.

“There will be more crop losses as areas that have not experienced flooding now are experiencing it for the first time,” Groot said.

With food safety the highest priority, Groot said storm-flooded fields must undergo a testing protocol to return to production. The protocol, established by the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, is needed to determine whether pathogens are in the fields. The process may take 60 days after waters recede.

“With fields being so saturated and inaccessible,” Groot said, “planting schedules set for March will probably be delayed.”

The California Strawberry Commission said, “Our farming communities will face a massive cleanup before they can even begin the process of preparing the fields again and starting over.”

Despite the challenges, the commission said there will be increased shipments of strawberries from Oxnard and Santa Maria to keep up with demand.

Jimmy Hook, president of the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association, said agricultural commissioners are collecting damage information but he expects delays due to the wet conditions. “This would be a good scenario for a state (disaster) declaration and it sounds like information collection has started to assess that avenue,” said Hook, who is the agricultural commissioner in Kings County.

Tulare County dairy and citrus farmer Tom Barcellos of Tipton, who runs an excavation business, said he had three excavators and a backhoe operating nonstop. The flooding “is in excess of what all of these rivers can handle,” he said.

“The challenge is on the creeks that have no control structure. They’re going to run until they slow down and that means that they’re going to run for a while, and wherever they’re broke out, good luck, because there’s no stopping it,” Barcellos said. “It’s not just here, it’s Fresno County, Madera County, Kern County—there’s just water everywhere.”

For at-capacity reservoirs, facility managers announced plans to release water through dam spillways to make room for water from the next storm.

Floodwaters are filled with “massive trees,” Barcellos said. Water managers at Lake Success were trying to keep debris from hitting the spillway and “building its own beaver dam that just floods everything even that much worse.”

Tulare County Farm Bureau organized a list of volunteers and services to help in the effort.

At the governor’s request, President Joe Biden issued a presidential emergency declaration last week, authorizing federal assistance to support state and local storm response efforts. With storms forecast to continue this week, the state of emergency was declared in 43 counties.

– Christine Souza and Ching Lee, California Farm Bureau Federation

PHOTOS: California Farm Bureau