Fallen trees, portions of a deck, and even refrigerators floated down Morro Creek in the wake of two atmospheric rivers that dumped more than 4 inches near Morro Bay between March 10 and 14.

The SLO County Public Works rainfall tracker near Canet Cemetery off Highway 1 outside of Morro Bay recorded almost 2 inches of rain on Friday, March 10, and close to 2.5 inches of rain on Tuesday, March 14.

• Photo Courtesy Of The City Of Morro Bay
• CLAW GRAB To alleviate the flooding in Morro Bay, the city had an excavator stationed on the Main Street Bridge to clear out any debris. 

Morro Bay declared a local emergency on March 10 due to "rising creek levels and damage or threatened damage to local infrastructure, homes, and businesses due to flooding." During a March 15 special meeting, the City Council adopted a resolution affirming that local emergency declaration.

Morro Bay Fire Chief Dan McCrain told New Times that areas primarily impacted by flooding from the recent storms included Silver City mobile home parks, homes along Morro Creek, and businesses along Main Street, Preston Lane, and Errol Street. McCrain said that the city had issued an evacuation warning to residents living in those areas, which were also impacted by the Jan. 9 and 10 storms.

"After the storm on Friday, people have begun to repopulate back into the mobile home park," McCrain said around 4:30 p.m. on March 13. "But we've been proactively making contact with those residents advising them to be prepared for the upcoming storm to seek alternative shelter if their houses [are] in that flood area."

In order to alleviate the potential impacts of the storms, Director of Public Works Greg Kwolek told New Times that the city cleared debris from under the Main Street bridge. During those efforts on March 10, Kwolek said that city officials identified the cause of flooding on Main Street through the use of aerial photography.

"There is no simple solution to the Main Street flooding problem," Kwolek said. "We have, however, identified the source of the flooding—it is upstream on private property."

Kwolek said that the flooding that was happening upstream on Morro Creek and Little Morro Creek is extending to areas north and south of the Main Street bridge.

"That includes the businesses along Main Street to the south of the bridge, and that includes the businesses and the trailer parks north of the bridge," Kwolek said. "Those are all getting flooded before the water even gets to the bridge because the creek is jumping its banks."

But clearing out those creek beds poses a problem, as the upstream areas of Morro Creek lie on private property, which is something the city will have to work with the property owners to find a solution to, Kwolek said.

"The flooding is happening on private property and so hoping we can come together to get solutions for that. It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to possibly take years," Kwolek said. "If we do get involved in a project or facilitate a project on behalf of property owners, [it] could take years with permitting and everything. But there is no simple solution to the Main Street flooding problem."

Kwolek said that the city had an excavator stationed on the Main Street bridge during the storm on March 10 in order to clear out any additional debris that could cause more flooding.

"I personally saw two refrigerators float down the creek from private property, and so we're able to take those out of the bridge and dispose of them. We have huge logs that are coming down at high speeds and then getting stuck along the bridge; we take them out immediately," Kwolek said. "So that's been really helpful and that's something that you know, we're doing this time that we did do a little bit on Jan. 9, but we didn't have anyone there full time working on it." Δ