Monterey and Santa Cruz County crews working to repair and reinforce levees on the Pajaro River

PAJARO, Calif., (KION-TV) - Rainwater putting a strain on the levees in Pajaro.

Crews have been out overnight, reinforcing and repairing the levee. Trying to fix it because of the damages the storm has left behind.

CAL FIRE drone teams from Pebble Beach have been on flyover operations this week, scoping out the levees. 

“It's allowing us to put these mandatory evacuations in effect a lot further and forecast out,” said Curtis Rhodes, a CAL FIRE Captain with the BEU Unit. “Rather than making the decision when the crucial need is for the time to be done.”

But the rain keeps coming down, flooding fields in parts of Monterey County. The Monterey County Water Resources Agency, making the necessary repairs to make the levees stronger. State agencies, like CAL FIRE, also pitching in.

Renon Porteur works in Pajaro. Porteur was in San Jose and got a call to come back and get his car, because of the evacuation orders that came down.

“My thoughts were just to get back here as quickly as I can,” said Porteur. “If it keeps on raining, like it's been doing and it doesn't look like it's going to stop for another week or two they say. It's kind of crazy. I mean, we haven't seen it like this in awhile.” 

Miguel Rubio grew up in Watsonville, but now lives in Castroville. Rubio also works in Pajaro. He told KION  he hasn't seen the river get this high in years. 

But both Porteur and Rubio are worried that if the river rises and floods, it could cause huge damages to the places they work.

“I work here and we have a lot of products in our facility that we don't want to get ruined,” said Rubio.

Monterey County said before this storm, it's made numerous preparations—like installing a floodwall at the low points on the earthen levee.  

Santa Cruz County said it's also working on emergency repairs.