Aptos Beach Flats floods Monday as rain dumps down

Aptos Beach Drive and several other surrounding streets in the area looked more liked rivers than roads on Monday.

“There was high tide this morning so it looked like the water was flowing up the street,” said resident Thaddeus Kosciolek.

Kosciolek said he’s used to dealing with some flooding on his street, but this winter has been something else.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Kosciolek said. “We’ve been dealing with it a lot this winter. The last couple years, we had one or two storms that were this bad, but nothing like this.”

Several other streets near Aptos Beach Drive also flooded. Kosciolek isn’t worried yet but he is keeping a close eye on things.

“As long as it doesn’t get any worse than it is now, I think we will be OK and usually they have the pump house going pretty good,” said Kosciolek.

The whole neighborhood is still recovering from Friday’s storm, in which Debbie Nielsen-Conroy heard not one, not two, not three, not even four, but five trees come crashing down right in front of her house.

“We were in the kitchen having breakfast and we heard this tremendous boom and the house shook,” said Conroy.

Conroy has lived in Aptos since 1979 and she’s no stranger to wild weather. “I saw the flood of ’82. I almost lost two rental houses over here. In the earthquake of ’89 we had to replace our foundation.”

So she’s glad there wasn’t any major damage and, most importantly, that everyone is OK.

“No one was hurt,” added Conroy. “I mean, it was a miracle.”

Deputies with the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office were out early Monday delivering sandbags to homes and businesses as rain continues to come down.

The Sheriff’s Office said it is monitoring the area closely and asking people to avoid the area if possible.

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