Pajaro evacuees voice frustrations at town hall, wait for firm return date
PAJARO – Pajaro residents in Monterey County could return to their homes to assess damage and begin cleanup as soon as Friday after recent storms prompted evacuations, but undeclared health risks and a lack of potable water are making a hard return date elusive for increasingly frustrated residents.
The entire community was evacuated the night of March 10 when the Pajaro River levee breached, leaving some parts of the town under several feet of water.
Frustration boiled over at a town hall meeting Tuesday at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, where 445 people were staying as of that night.
There are no active gas leaks and power is back on for most of the community, according to Monterey County emergency services planner Kelsey Scanlon.
However, water remains shut off and will likely still be off on Friday, if residents are given the go-ahead to enter the evacuation zone. Portable toilets, showers and laundry stations are being set up throughout Pajaro for the initial phase of re-entry, Scanlon said.
But a statement after the meeting from the county emphasized that people returning "do so at their own risk."
The initial re-entry will be only for assessing damage and starting cleanup. Repairs to a broken sewer main are expected to be completed by the end of the week, according to county Public Works director Randy Ishii. He said otherwise the sewer lines were clear and the streets were passable.
"By far the roads are able to be driven upon and walked upon," Ishii said.
Inspections revealed damage to 903 buildings in Pajaro. Another 459 buildings were deemed undamaged, according to Cal Fire division chief George Nunez.
Six residences were red-tagged by county inspectors, meaning they are too dangerous to enter. Buildings with yellow tags or placards are safe to enter but unsafe to live in.
The town hall meeting was streamed on Facebook but suffered from a poor internet connection, leaving dozens of commenters who were not at the shelter frustrated at the presentation. At least 81 residents are staying at shelters other than the fairgrounds.
"This live feed is so bad, I hope after giving all this info you can have a second town hall when there's not such terrible weather so the community as a whole can show up to make sure that the people of Pajaro are served properly," wrote one commenter, Vrinda Quintero.
At the meeting, residents vented their frustration at the neglect of the Pajaro River levee and the community itself and asked about financial assistance.
The need for repairs has long been known to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state and county water officials. The county Board of Supervisors was told during a presentation in February that the levee was at risk of overtopping at lower levels than hydrographs suggest, partially because of vegetation that had grown in the river.
To prepare for levee overtopping at the time, county crews installed 3,000 feet of emergency concrete block and portable Muscle Wall designed to contain overflowing water along the upper stretch of the levee, stockpiled supplies, strengthened and made repairs to levee roads and banks, improved all-weather access for the levee and identified key areas to monitor river flows. But none of that prevented the flooding of Pajaro.
A major construction project to redo the levee system is scheduled to start in 2025 and last for several years. A joint powers agency tasked with overseeing the project previously called the levees "crucially deficient."
