Russell Road neighbors still fearful storms will flood homes again

Residents were evacuated after a levy breach Thursday night, and nearly five days later, the neighborhood off Russell Road in Salinas which had more than a dozen homes flooded from that storm, is worried about more rain.

The break from the rain only stopped rising water levels for a short amount of time.
“It was flooded the whole neighbors front yard was flooded with water, the creek was going up,” said Salinas resident Miguel Robles.

Robles lives off Russell road and he said they haven’t seen flooding issues like this in a long time. Some residents in the neighborhood say the creek behind their homes hasn’t been cleaned out in almost 20 years.

Earlier in the day the water on Robles’ street was almost covering one section of the road. He hopes this storm doesn’t get as bad as last weeks when the street had to be closed.

“I know I couldn’t get in that night so that was difficult getting in, and having to move from work back and forth,” said Robles.

This time around residents are trying to be better prepared by putting out sand bags to protect their homes.

Just north of Salinas, water flowing off the hillside on to Highway 101 near San Juan Road pushed mud and debris on the road and closed down the on-ramp.

Meanwhile, back on Russell Road, residents are keeping a close eye on the creek and hoping things don’t go from bad to worse.

“If it gets any worse than this I’m pretty sure it’s all going to be flooded later on,– later on in this day or throughout the week,” said Robles.