The City of Morro Bay is preparing for the upcoming rainy season and encouraging residents to do the same.
Severe winter storms at the beginning of 2023 left many Morro Bay homes and businesses with extensive damage.
Jeff Babb, who owns Central Coast Carts along Main Street, says his business flooded twice — once in January and again in March. During the January storms, his store had four feet of water inside.
“It took us a month in January pretty much, a good three weeks. Main Street was closed for a good couple of weeks. The cleanup effort was extensive," Babb recalled.
Babb says the cost of damage from both floods is estimated at around $400,000.
“We had rental equipment here, we had stuff that was for sale, our bikes and scooters, all of our technical equipment for our shop, for working on golf carts and everything -- we lost a lot. We had no idea the first flood was coming,” he said.
Ross Selkirk, who owns Estero Glass also along Main Street, says his business also saw four feet of water in January along with 30 inches in March.
“We were partially operating within 12 weeks or so and fully back operating four months later,” he said.
Historically, El Niños bring a lot of rain to California and most of those storms occur from January to March. The city has prepared a checklist for people in the community to help prepare them for a potential El Niño year — things like inspecting slopes or large bare areas that may be sources for mudflows, and checking drains, gutters, structures and roofs.
The businesses along Main Street have already started prepping for the upcoming rainy season.
“We got pallets of sandbags in the back," Babb said. "I think now we know the building well enough we can mitigate pretty well so we got all the equipment here. We’re ready to go if the forecast says we need to.”
“We’ve got sandbags and kind of water protection around the building,” Selkirk said.
The City of Morro Bay will have sand available in the library parking lot ahead of any major storms but you will need to bring your own shovel and sandbag.
