Pajaro River breach leaves town in Monterey Co. underwater, residents asked not to drink water

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- One of the biggest weather-related disasters is in Monterey County in the community of Pajaro near the Santa Cruz County line where flooding is leaving the town underwater.

A levee broke Friday and forced around 1,700 people from their home.

Thousands more are being asked to leave and others in the county are being told not to drink the water.

Complete neighborhoods underwater Saturday after a 120 foot wide levee breach along the Pajaro River in Monterey County.

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"We got notice that the levees were overtopping with water and then a portion of the levee broke about three miles upstream and it's the size of a train car," said Luis Alejo, Monterey Board of Supervisor Chair.

"It's a tremendous volume of water it continues to accumulate as we speak," said Lew Bauman, interim GM Monterey County Water Resources Agency.

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During a press conference on Saturday, officials announced that some of this water is draining on the west side of the community, but they also detailed current flood projections that show the situation getting worse in the days to come.

"Again I want to reiterate this is a model it's based on a variety of assumptions and the weather service will be updating this probably 8-10 times before Tuesday so these are very preliminary numbers and we hope those projected flows are less than currently projected," said Lew Bauman, interim GM Monterey County Water Resources Agency.

State and county water officials are now closely eying the levee and what can be done to fix it but currently no solution is in place.

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"At this time we do not have a precise estimate on what it will take to stop the breach," Bauman said.

In the 15 or so hours after the levee breach, more than 90 rescues were made according to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office.

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Crews now trying to figure out what measures can be taken as more wet weather approaches.

As they do that there are questions about what type of shape this levee was in before the recent storms started. Even officials admitting that the levee wasn't up to standards.

"We knew that there were a couple areas that needed to be fixed, there was reinforcement that was already applied and even with that the water was so much stronger coming through." said Sonia DeLarosa, county administrative officer.

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