Santa Cruz County community uses zip line to access their homes following storms
CORRALITOS, Calif. -- A zip line has become a lifeline for a Corralitos community after their access bridge was washed away in storm waters this winter.
Darrell Hardy set up the line New Year's weekend when he thought the bridge connecting his Santa Cruz County community to the main road might go out.
"KSBW was talking about all the weather that was coming in and I went, 'ho ho that bridge is not looking good,' so I went ahead and set up the zip line," said Hardy.
The Corralitos man said he's happy he did by the second weekend in January, the bridge crossing Corralitos Creek and connecting his community to the main road had washed away. The bridge failure cut off Grizzly Flat Road and Loma Escondida Road from Eureka Canyon Road were it not for the zip line.
Hardy said there are seven households off Grizzly Flatt Road, with some residents in their 80s and others with young children. To keep his family and others supplied, Hardy has hooked up a basket to the zip line to ferry food, medicine and fuel to their homes.
"It's kind of scary because you know people live on propane and need gas for generators," said Hardy's wife Stacey Cooper.
Families living on Grizzly Flatt Road parked cars on the Eureka Canyon side of the bridge ahead of the January storms in preparation for a possible bridge failure. Even once Grizzly Flat residents get to the main road, it's no easy drive out with downed trees and power lines keeping Eureka Canyon Road closed.
The Grizzly Flat community is in unincorporated Santa Cruz County, but the bridge across Corralitos Creek was owned by the city of Watsonville. Hardy said engineers were out to look at the bridge earlier this week but said repairs will have to wait until water levels go down.