California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Ninety homes near the Kings River Golf Course were evacuated just after midnight on Saturday morning when the Kings River breeched its banks. Parts of the golf course were inundated with some 10 feet of standing water due to increased snow melt amid the soaring summer temperatures following the state’s near record winter snowfall. Tulare county Sheriff’s deputies and Tulare County firefighters went door to door late Friday night to advise residents they were under mandatory evacuation.
Water released from the Pine Flat Dam and Reservoir caused the Kings River to breech on Friday afternoon. The dam was hovering at 100 percent capacity late last week and to prevent the dam from exceeding its limit necessary flood control measures were enacted. Flows were increased to 14,900 cubic feet per second (cfs) which exceeded the capacity of the rivers banks in the flatlands. Flows were reduced to 14,000 cfs on Sunday.
Although some of the residents of the 90 evacuated homes were allow back in Sunday to assess the damage that occurred to their properties, none of the evacuees have been allowed to resume living in their homes. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, Tulare County Fire Department, Cal Fire, and Pacific, Gas & Electric were working with residents to resume power to their homes and to safely assist them into the area. Aerial helicopter drops of super-sized sandbags have also assisted authorities and residents to resolve the south bank breach located just south of the country club.
The Kings River has been closed to all recreational use since March 21 due to the potentially dangerous condition for all recreational use including swimming and boating. Authorities are stressing that Tulare County rivers are flowing very fast and very cold all due to the Sierra Nevada snow melt.
The Kings River is note only river in California that is running fast and cold. The Tuolumne River in Stanislaus County’s Modesto raising it from a current level of 51 feet to some 53 feet at the Ninth Street Bridge. Lake Don Pedro — which feeds the Tuolumne River – was also experiencing increase snowmelt. Likewise, the California Department of Parks and Recreation is recommending that people steer clear of from the South Yuba River. The U.S. Forest Services’ Facebook page indicates that Mark Sullivan of the Nevada County Sheriff’s office has said that 17 people have died in rivers in California this year, and three of those deaths occurred in the Yuba River.
