Here’s how Merced was hit by an ‘insane amount’ of flood water and what happens now

Merced leaders were given a preliminary overview of how flooding from recent rainstorms displaced residents and created untold financial loss due to property damage.

The bulk of the incident report information was presented Tuesday to the City Council by Merced Fire Chief Derek Parker, followed by the council’s unanimous support of a declaration about the existence of a local emergency due to the flood.

Preliminary estimates put the number of Merced residents displaced by the flood at 1,600 people. That number does not include those who were displaced in communities outside Merced city limits, like Planada. City officials have also identified 26 Merced businesses impacted by the flood.

City officials did not have a specific dollar amount Tuesday for the damage and costs associated with flood. City staff and local officials over the coming days will gather and document those issues.

Staff will return to the council with an outline of expenses at a future date. Some of that damage will qualify for federal reimbursement.

Local emergency planners divided the city into 13 evacuation zones prior to the flooding. Of those zones, eight were activated during the crisis, impacting roughly 5,000 homes who received an evacuation order or warning.

Merced County officials have said the maximum number of people under an evacuation warning in unincorporated areas during the flooding was 15,804. There were 4,024 people under a mandatory evacuation order in unincorporated Merced County, according to spokesperson Mike North.

North said estimates for dollar amounts on damage in those areas of Merced County are still pending.

Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto and other leaders said the quick response by city staff, particularly the Public Works Department, along with public safety personnel and law enforcement, averted a disaster that could have been much worse.

As of Tuesday, there have been no reports of lives lost in Merced city or county due to the flooding.

“Obviously there is still a lot of tragedy, a lot of bad things that happened, but you are all to be applauded, especially the Public Works Department, for just an immense amount of work and good work getting out ahead of it and really just working tirelessly to mitigate this unprecedented flood, ” Serratto said.

Councilmember Shane Smith said the focus should be on keeping Bear Creek fortified and strong in the long run. “It seems to me the creek needs to act as if this is not a 200-year flood but something we are going to deal with more often,” Smith said.

Smith said more action also needs to be taken to get displaced people back into homes. “We talked about a trailer park and apartments that got hit pretty bad. It seems to me we can do things to expedite repair and remodel, to do inspections, make sure our under-served community who probably got hit the hardest can get back to homes fastest,” Smith said.

In response, City Manager Stephanie Dietz said local staff via the regional Emergency Operations Center will put in a request to bring in building inspectors, creating a streamlined process for residents to get repairs done. Many of those resources will be accessible at the Merced County Fairgrounds, in the same area where Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials have been stationed.

She said that will also include getting people out of emergency shelters and back into homes, farmworker housing and apartments.

“Trust me when I tell you that our buildings team has been chomping at the bit to release them, but everything we do is in coordination with the county EOC,” Dietz said. “If we don’t follow protocol, we don’t get (federal) reimbursement and then that’s a bigger burden on the taxpayer.”

“When we launch it won’t be just in one area, it will be across the city. We’ve documented all of (that) localized flooding. We didn’t want to just provide service to one area, we want to provide it equitably across all areas that were impacted,” she added.

Water went over banks of Bear Creek

Parker said the fast-moving waters of Merced’s Bear Creek rose to a depth of over 26 feet around 1 a.m. Jan. 10. The result was devastating, as the water flooded roads and residences.

“(The water) just came over the banks, and it came over the banks with a lot of ferocity,” Parker told the council. “In that western end of town, West North Bear Creek and Bear Creek Court, the water came right over the top of the banks. We had some walls in place and they didn’t hold, just due to the amount of flow that we actually had.”

While the water came over the banks, the heavy amount of rain from the storm caused local flooding to roads and communities citywide. “There were a number of different areas that were problematic,” he said. “We were all over this city trying to figure out where potential hazards were going to come from.”

While talking about some of the flooding in the creek area of Montana and Glen avenues, Parker, who grew up in Merced, said he never imagined water from the creek in that area would come onto the roadway.

“It was an insane amount of water,” he said, while showing the council aerial photos displaying how the flooding overtook different parts of the city.

Parker said the water in some areas of creek came over the banks and flowed downhill onto Bear Creek Drive at thousands of cubic feet per second, following a path of least resistance. “Which is how cars were raised up and put on top of fire hydrants and moved off the street and into houses,” Parker said.

Areas of focus now

Fortunately, no lives have been reported lost in the flooding in Merced County, although statewide 19 people have been killed, some of them children.

Still, Parker reminded residents that although the flood has passed, the areas around the creek are particularly unstable and dangerous. As a result, people need to stay away while local officials address the situation over the coming weeks.

“The last thing we want is somebody getting swept into the creek because the land slid and they are either buried in a trench....in a flooded area or they are floating down a creek. We don’t want that,” Parker said.

President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Merced County, which means the federal government will make disaster assistance available. That aid can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

The move will also allow the city to apply for reimbursement from the flood damage.

With Biden’s action, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is authorized to conduct all disaster relief in the area, and officials are stationed at the Merced County Fairgrounds.

The state’s Office of Emergency Services through the county has also launched a team to document damage to both private property and public infrastructure, Parker said.

Parker said the focus has also shifted to ongoing repairs to Bear Creek and clearing garbage and debris, particularly from residents and businesses who are making repairs and removing flood-damaged infrastructure. “We’re got a lot of people ripping out their home or their apartment or condo or their business,” Parker said.

Dietz said the coordination via the city and county Emergency Operations Center working closely with state and regional partners proved instrumental in the emergency response. For example, Dietz said the city ran out of sandbags during preparations for the flood.

Dietz said that coordination and structure, however, helped alleviate that problem. “We had four different trucks running up and down the state of California looking for sandbags and buying sandbags,” Dietz said. “If we work within the system we can work very efficiently, because we could be so nimble we were able to get those sandbags before the storm hit.”

How to help

Those who wish to submit monetary donations to help those affected by the flood can do so through the United Way of Merced County by calling (209) 383-4242 or through the United Way of Merced’s website www.unitedwaymerced.org.

Physical donations can be dropped off at the Merced City Senior Center at 755 W. 15th Street in Merced. The donation center is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Monetary donations can also be made to the Red Cross by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW or by visiting the Red Cross website.

Merced County also has a Flood Hotline at (209) 385-7563.

This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Here’s how Merced was hit by an ‘insane amount’ of flood water and what happens now."