Monterey County Board of Supervisors prepares to declare “local emergency” following severe weather in Carmel
A local emergency is going to be declared in Carmel by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. This is following the severe rain that Central Coast residents have experienced over the last couple of weeks.
The board is concerned about this particular area because the rain brought the Carmel Lagoon very close to flood level.
Declaring a “local emergency” opens some doors for the county to prevent such a damaging situation. It allows the state to get involved in organizing the county’s cleanup efforts. It also gives the county the opportunity to hire independent contractors to do what they can to pull the area out of “local emergency” status. These crews would be doing things like pumping water to manage potential damage.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors meeting is Tuesday morning. That’s when the board is expected to start calling the situation an “emergency.”
Another agenda item that will be addressed in that meeting is a plan to approve funds for weather-related projects.
The Board of Supervisors has a list of these repair projects. Some of them are from 2017, while others are from earlier in 2019. At Tuesday’s meeting, the board is expected to move forward with approving the costs.
For 2019, the winter storm emergency response repair projects come to a total cost of $1,325,000. Those are all currently in progress.
Then, there are four more recommended winter storm projects, which would cost a total of $1,187,000.
Finally, there are 10 more projects pending approval. The estimate for those is $1,940,000.
Calling this a “local emergency” opens some doors for the county to prevent any other major damage in Carmel. With severe weather in recent places like Chualar, it remains to be seen whether more projects will be added to the list.
