Celia Jiménez here, thinking about the arduous work Pajaro residents have ahead of them to bring normalcy to their lives and recover financially and emotionally from the recent flooding that left many parts of town underwater after the Pajaro River levee broke after midnight on Saturday, March 11.
Today at 10am, those residents saw a small ray of hope after the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office lifted the evacuation orders in Pajaro and residents who fled the area could return home and see firsthand the damage the flooding left behind. The town still bears the marks of the widespread flooding—water marks on homes and on bicycles, abandoned vehicles swept away by the water and mud.
Pajaro Park didn’t have kids playing and laughing or families gathering; Instead, residents were waiting in line to collect hygiene essentials, including toothbrushes; hand sanitizer, gloves, and masks for cleaning their homes; and bottled water, with the water supply still unsafe to drink. They were also preparing themselves for the reentry process: to check on the state of their home and belongings and begin the cleaning process.
I met Ruth Ruiz on March 11. She was at the bridge with her daughter, looking in disbelief at their town, now underwater. Since that day, she says, she has stayed in hotels and with different relatives while she waited for news and a date to return home. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment with her husband, daughter and stepson.
Today Ruiz and her mother, Maria Ponce, went back to their homes and unlocked the gate. They live in the same property but in different units. Ponce quickly looked at her house and realized that only a little water had infiltrated in her house. There was some water on the floor in the laundry area, but the carpets were dry.
Ponce then helped Ruiz to remove sand bags and plastic bags from in front of Ruiz’s unit. Together, they took a look inside. Ruiz's apartment had a musky smell and the carpet was wet with mud and some of her shoes had mold in them. Ruiz was relieved the damage was less than she had imagined, but she was still devastated: “I can’t come home,” Ruiz says. She thinks it will take months before she can occupy her unit. The insurance company has to come in and assess damage—something that won’t happen until the beginning of April.
As of today, March 23, Pajaro has electricity and gas services, but there is no potable water or sewage service. Monterey County and the Pajaro Sunny Mesa Community Services District are working together to repair and establish the wastewater system. The county does not recommend that residents stay in their homes until both services are functioning.
But Nick Pasculli, Monterey County's communications director, says if people decide to stay, county officials won’t get on the way. “It may not be safe for the family to stay. That’s why shelters will remain open,” Pasculli says. The county expects that the sewer system will be fixed on Friday, March 24, but it could be longer.
The county has set up two resource hubs—one in Pajaro Park and a second at Pajaro Middle School—with showers, toilets, and laundry services (a bus route by MST is available to shuttle residents between the hubs and their homes), as well as portable toilets and hand-washing stations throughout the town. For more information, visit the county’s recovery website.
During my reporting on the immediate aftermath of the levee breach, I saw Ruiz and other Pajaro residents several times at the bridge. The only barrier back then was yellow tape and private security preventing her and others from crossing the bridge. Now, the bridge is open. But there are still barriers they have to hurdle—the damage within the walls of their homes, and the empty pockets left after expending their savings and/or being without a job during the evacuation.