Pajaro River levee breach floods the community, with emergency responders scrambling to get people to safety.

The morning of Saturday, March 11 saw a break in the rain but a colossal amount of water coming down the Pajaro River. A crowd of people gathered under overcast skies on the Pajaro River Bridge to watch the river flow below them. Several of them were evacuated residents of Pajaro, trying to find out if their homes were underwater.

The Pajaro levee breached early on Saturday, March 11, shortly after midnight. The breach is about 100 feet wide, and near where a breach occurred in 1995. It's located about a quarter-mile away from the intersection of San Miguel Canyon and San Juan roads, upstream from the 2,072-person community of Pajaro, which is under evacuation orders.

One of the people gathered on the bridge—which was closed to vehicular traffic— was Ramon Sanchez, 59, a Pajaro resident who was at the levee on Saturday morning. He walked for over an hour to get there. He went to Pajaro to check if his apartment was underwater or not. “I haven’t slept,” he says in Spanish.

Sanchez and his family evacuated at 1:30am after getting a knock on the door. Sanchez and his wife, Carmen Ramirez, and son Gabriel, stayed with his daughter in Watsonville overnight.

Josh Silveira, battalion chief with Cal Fire, says they started evacuations as soon as they knew about the breach with help from units from the Menlo Park and Oakland swift water rescue teams. Silveira says they evacuated people from 200 homes overnight. “Everything on the Monterey County side of the Pajaro River is under mandatory evacuation orders,” he notes. 

The National Guard was called to assist with rescues and into mid-morning on Saturday, was bringing people from the floodwaters to the foot of the Pajaro River bridge so they could walk north, over the river, and into Watsonville.

Ruth Ruiz was also on the Pajaro River Bridge, on the Watsonville side, with her daughter watching the flooding in the distance.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it would happen, but it happened unfortunately,” Ruiz says.

She grabbed some clothes and a few toys for her daughter before leaving. She and her family are staying nearby with a relative, and she doesn’t know if she will move into a hotel; they were away from home for nine days during the January winter storms. They spent seven of those days at a hotel paying $200 per night. “It was expensive,” Ruiz says, and adds: “Help, we didn’t get it from anywhere."

Ruiz works from home for West Marine, a chain specializing in boat parts and fishing supplies. Without the internet and electricity, she can’t work. “I can’t tell you when I’m going back to work," she says. "It is a loss [for us] from every side.” 

Ruiz was able to check on the status of her home thanks to a camera she has installed, and estimates the water reached up to 3 feet inside. She adds that this time, she hopes they receive help. 

Silveira says flooding is as high as 4 feet, and their efforts are focused on evacuating residents for life and safety. Emergency responders are assessing the situation to make short-term recovery plans, but the focus on Saturday remained on getting people out from Pajaro.

The Monterey County Sheriff's Office was using drones to locate people still in the evacuation area, then using that information to send in high-water vehicles—including vehicles provided by the National Guard—to rescue people and get them out of the flooded area. National Guard vehicles were dropping people off at the foot of the Main Street bridge late on Saturday morning, from where they were encouraged to walk over the Pajaro River into Watsonville (in Santa Cruz County).

The video below, provided by the California Office of Emergency Services, shows the river flowing out past the levee where it breached.

Fabian Rios and his brother in law Orlando Valtierra,15, were walking along Porter Drive on Saturday morning, away from the flooded area in Pajaro. Rios removed his rain boots to empty them out, while Orlando carried a large tote with clothes and medicine for Rios' kids.

“It’s already a burden to have to pay for our hotel and stuff,” Rios says.

His family upgraded their washer and dryer a few months ago, and now they're gone, with 6 to 12 inches of water in his house: “Our garage is full of water, our laundry room is full of water.”

His renter's insurance, he adds, doesn’t cover flooding damage.

Ruiz and Rios both have evacuated the area twice, and both say they didn’t receive any aid. Rios estimates his family had $1,500 in unexpected expenses in January due to evacuations. Rios says he called a phone number on a flyer from FEMA, but never got a call back. Ruiz says left her information for aid at a FEMA assistance center in Watsonville that was set up after the storm, but never received any aid.

The nearest shelter is located at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds (2061 E. Lake Blvd., Watsonville); Monterey County has set up a shelter at Compass Church (10325 S. Main St., Salinas). Monterey-Salinas Transit is available to offer free transportation to people needing to get to a shelter location.

Daniel Dreifuss contributed to this report.