Salinas ready for atmospheric river
Salinas city leaders said they’re ready for the atmospheric river headed towards the California coast.
Public Works officials say they’re not too worried about the rain. They will be keeping an eye on known trouble spots like rec ditches and low-lying streets, as well as offering free sandbags to residents who may be concerned about flooding. They say wind is their major concern.
“I think the community and the department are really good at responding to flooding shall it occur, but we don’t expect that,” said Don Reynolds, acting Public Works Director. “We just expect to keep monitoring the winds on a regular basis to make sure if they get up over 40, 45 miles an hour, we have to get into a red alert mode.”
Strong winds can bring down trees and power lines.
“If anybody sees a wire down, please do not try to clear it on your own,” said acting Fire Chief Brett Loomis. “Call 911, let your fire department come out and secure the area, PG&E will come out. We always treat every wire that’s down as energized until proven otherwise by PG&E.”
City and county leaders have another tool at their disposal. WebEOC is managed by the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services. The management software system allows emergency personnel to share real time information and accurately document emergency incidents they respond to.
“We can do in from any mobile phone, from any mobile computer, anywhere we have internet connectivity and we can post information,” Loomis said. “And if it’s critical information that we have to share with our mutual aid partners, share with the office of emergency services or we think it’s an incident that’s going to require a lot of resources, we have the ability to immediately route that to the people that need to know so we can ramp up an emergency management model that’s going to help us safely and effectively manage whatever we’re dealing with.”
WebEOC isn’t for the public. The city does offer an app called ‘Salinas Connect,’ where folks can report issues directly to the city. City leaders say for things like downed trees or wires, don’t use the app, call 911.
