The County of San Luis Obispo hosted a community meeting Monday night on emergency preparedness ahead of the approaching winter storms.
County officials discussed their plans with the communities surrounding the Arroyo Grande Creek Levee and shared how they can keep their families safe during a weather emergency.
Residents gathered at the Oceano Community Services District to learn more information on the current conditions of the Arroyo Grande Creek Levee and Lopez Lake, the status of repair efforts, and emergency planning information.
Scott Jalbert, the county’s Office of Emergency Services Director, says we could encounter similar conditions to the last winter's storms.
“Based on the weather and the projections of an El Niño winter, we can reasonably expect that we’re going to see conditions similar to what we saw last year, and with that, the potential of the Arroyo Grande Creek towards the levee system has the potential for either overflowing or having other issues that could cause evacuations,” Jalbert said.
During the presentation, Jalbert said San Luis Obispo County has been divided into pre-established evacuation zones.
“We took the entire county and we made it into a giant puzzle and we took the puzzle pieces and we broke it up into sections and we issued numbers to each one of those sections,” Jalbert said.
The numbers issued for these three evacuation zones are for areas south of the levee (SLC-E315), north of the levee (FIV-E024), and the lagoon (FIV-E025).
They are intended to help the public identify whether they are in an area under an evacuation warning after receiving a wireless emergency alert.
“The plan entails that we have pre-established thresholds for decision points so when the creek reaches a certain level or we know that we’re going to receive a certain amount of rainfall per hour, that will hit triggers to issue an evacuation warning, and if those conditions continue to get worse that may lead us to conduct an evacuation order,” Jalbert explained.
According to San Luis Obispo County officials, the January 9 storm left the Arroyo Grande Creek with millions of dollars worth of damages to its south side levee.
The projected cost to fully repair the levee system is estimated at around $20 million.
County officials say the repairs to the outside slopes of the levee have been completed.
“We were able to restore the outside slopes of the levee where we saw some damage and now we’re working on a solution on some of the seepage that we saw and we have some temporary measures for this season while we’re getting that designed,” said Courtney Howard, Water Resources Division Manager, County of San Luis Obispo Public Works Department.
For more additional information on storm and flood preparedness from the County of San Luis Obispo, click here.
