Flooding Forces Butte County Residents To Evacuate Once Again
CHICO (CBS13) — Flooded driveways and highways are scattered throughout Butte County as Thursday's rain caught many residents by surprise.
"We just can't catch a break with it right now in the county," said Patrick Purvis, a Battalion Chief with Cal Fire in Butte County. "I mean, we just go from fire season straight into floods, landslides. We've had a lot of rock issues, debris issues."
Evacuation orders are in place in Centerville and Durham, but some locals decided to hunker down and wait for the water to subside. CBS13 found Felicia Haslem on Garden Road talking with Butte County Sheriff's Deputies, trying to find a way to get to her husband.
"Just seeing if I could get back to my house yet?" she asked the deputies.
"Not yet, we have the road closed because of the flooding," he replied.
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"I'll have to let my hubby know that I can't make it back because he's thinkin' I can get through," Haslem told CBS13.
Moments later, her husband pulled up on his four-wheeler. But deputies told him it's too dangerous to let anyone travel on the dark flooded roads. Esquon, Honey Run Road and Highway 62 were just a few of the roads inundated with water on Thursday.
Ten people were rescued from their homes and cars, according to Purvis.
"With the high winds today, trees blowing down blocking those drainage systems, that was what was causing the quick flooding that we had," he said.
Making matters worse, heavy rain poured over burn scars east of Highway 99.
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"And everything flowed down to the town of Durham," Purvis explained.
It was yet another hurdle for this fractured region just three weeks after the Camp Fire burned more than 150,000 acres.
"In the Butte Creek Canyon, all of those people were evacuated due to the fire originally, and then the houses that still are standing, they all got evacuated again," Purvis said.
Meanwhile, Haslem tried to focus on the positive as she waited for her chance to get back home.
"Barns got flooded but our house didn't flood, so we're in pretty good shape," she said.
Cal Fire and Butte County Sheriff's Department plan to monitor the flooding overnight and into Friday.