County Puts Up 1500-Foot Sandbag Wall To Protect Community Of Madison From More Flooding
MADISON (CBS13) — The Yolo County Office of Emergency Services has installed a 1500-foot-long sandbag wall in the community of Madison following a series of damaging floods this winter.
Floodwater seeped into several Madison homes in the first two months of the year, leaving a messy and costly cleanup.
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"We literally have to replace everything, everything in the whole house," Madison resident Daniel LeBeau said.
LeBeau and his family were flooded out of their home in January. Then the home flooded again in February. The community of Madison sits in one of the lowest elevations in the valley. But flooding this year has been especially bad.
"I c
an't begin to speculate," LeBeau said. "But I know that it sucks when it happens, I know we'd like it to not happen or not as bad."
This week Yolo County Public Works employees laid hundreds of sandbags on a street on the edge of town to try and divert stormwater from reaching the Madison community and into homes when it rains.
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"This is a technique we use when we do what we call flood fighting," Yolo County Emergency Manager Dana Carey said.
Carey blames the combination of burn scars from wildfires, creek debris, and strong winter storms for making flooding worse this year.
"We just want to do everything we can to make the next couple of months a little bit easier," Carey said.
For LeBeau, he'll take any help he can get.
"I mean, anything is better than nothing," LeBeau said. "The last three or four times it's happened, there is literally nothing, no drainage."
Yolo County Office of Emergency Services plans to leave the temporary sandbag wall up until at least the middle of April.
