Salinas crews prepare for rain

A lot of action going on at the City of Salinas maintenance yard. Crews handled the usual daily tasks, while preparing for all problems that come with the heavy rains.

“The street sweepers are out trying to pick up all the leaves that have fallen in anticipation of some fair amount of water,” said City of Salinas Maintenance Superintendent Larry Oda.

Around this time of year leaves tend to pose a big problem. They get into the storm drains and can cause flooding.

“A lot of the flooding, if we have grates get packed up its leaves,” said Salinas Waste Water Manager Gary Gabriel.

So to prepare for the forecasted rain crews are doing two things. The first, just simply lifting and keeping the grates off the storm drains so more water can go down. And for the areas more prone to flooding they’re not only doing that but taking it one step further.

“They vacuum and jet the line to remove any material that’s accumulated,” said Gabriel.

Which is not a clean, easy, or quick job.

“We probably got around 60 around the city that have the potential of flooding,” said Gabriel.

City of Salinas Maintenance Superintendent Larry Oda says the City has prepared more than it has in a very long time. And he believes they’re ready for the wet weather.

“In the floods of 96 and 97 we used about eight thousand bags. We’ve inventoried our sand bags. We have about 30-thousand bags on hand,” said Oda.