People living in Felton Grove are preparing for potential flooding

FELTON, Calif. (KION-TV) UPDATE ON JAN. 31 AT 3:30 PM- With rain and heavy rain expected to hit Santa Cruz County, people who live in Felton Grove were getting prepared on Wednesday afternoon.

Heather Azim, who has been living in Felton Grove for years said she's used to preparing for flooding.

Azim said this time around she's doing things differently, especially since she lost a lot of things during last year's storms.

"Getting racks and putting things up that are important on the racks and stilts," said Azim. "We put our washer and dryer up in the table, tired of replacing my washer and dryer."

Azim said last winter's storms ruined her backyard, and she had to fix it.

Neighbors around the area said they marked a stop sign to see where the water levels reached and the highest it reached was last winter.

Linda Orenga, who also has been living in the area for years said she has new neighbors, and she's been helping them prepare for the storm.

"We learned a lot last year," said Orenga. "It was the worst flooding we've ever had last year.

Orenga said she is making sure her neighbors have all the right necessities to be safe.

"Make sure they have all the resources they need for emergency preparedness." said Orenga.

Orenga said she has her generator ready, and is not too concerned with what might happen because she already experienced the worst last year.

And for Azim, she said she's not too worried either, and when there's a storm she usually doesn't go anywhere.

"We get everything as secure as we can and just really wait," said Azim. "The main thing is to move the cars to make sure they don't get damaged."

Santa Cruz County said weather shelters will be open until Friday.

The following sites will provide shelter:

• Depot Park in Santa Cruz
• Watsonville Veterans Memorial Building in Watsonville

There is a rain storm expected on Wednesday night into Thursday morning on the Central Coast.

People living up in the Santa Cruz Mountains are expected to get hit hard by the storm again, including those living in Felton Grove

Linda Orenga who has been lives in Felton Grove for the past seven years said her property was completely under water.

The community of Felton Grove looked fine on Tuesday afternoon, but Orenga said she's preparing for the worst this week.

"Just making sure we have a generator that works and trying to make sure we don't have a lot of debris in our yard." said Orenga.

The County of Santa Cruz said they're also preparing for the storm. Dave Reid who is the director for the Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience for Santa Cruz County said they want people to get notified as soon as possible regarding storm impacts.

"We are using that tool to do a lot more preventative and preparedness communication with the public," said Reid, "So, that we make sure, not only throughout our traditional channels of social media and general media, but throughout that communication platform we're able to message out to folks."

The alert warning communication tool is called "Cruz Aware" and notifies people about weather related events.

Reid said crews clearing culverts and have been working on the creek channels to make sure they're clear of debris.

Santa Cruz County is recommending people to not drive on the roads Wednesday night because of the high winds and stormy conditions that could be coming to our area.