Watsonville neighborhood flooding recovery efforts

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV)- People in Watsonville are cleaning up debris from their houses after rain forced evacuation advisories in the Corralitos Creek area.

Darryll Burnett left his house for New Year's Eve plans but realized that the water was slowly overflowing from the creek.

"The water just started to to rise and we didn't know," Burnett said. "We try to come back home later at about 9:00, and they had all the roads blocked and we couldn't get in at all."

Burnett and his wife had to wait until at least 11:00 p.m. last night to get back into the neighborhood.

The water reached to Burnett's front porch and the creek overflowed onto the properties.

"The city set up all of the mulch on the center divider," Burnett said. "The water was just so high."

Watsonville Assistant City Manager Tamara Vides said the flooding was unexpected in Corralitos Creek.

"It was an unexpected volume of water that all of sudden just flooded our streets," Vides said. "It was an unexpected amount of water in a very short time."

Vides said that city public work employees are on call and working on fixing the pumps to prevent more flooding from coming into the neighborhoods.