Sutter County Flooding Getting Progressively Worse As Some Streets Remain Underwater
SUTTER COUNTY (CBS13) - Three days after a record-breaking rainstorm parts of Sutter County area are still underwater.
Nine streets remained flooded on Wednesday. The Sutter County Office of Emergency Management says it's their neighboring county causing the floods.
"It's our own personal lake. I'm going to put my bathing suit on and come on down and take a swim," said Julie Mendonca, who lives on Sycamore street.
But it's not a body of water Julie Mendonca would be diving into, it's Sycamore Street and it's flooded.
"It's 10 feet deep. I don't know it looks really deep," she said.
Mendonca's husband drove an ATV to help guide her through the flooded roadway.
Nine streets in Sutter County were closed off Wednesday are still flooded from Sunday's rainstorm.
"Tremendous amount of runoff. It's a lot of work for any county's road crews," said Sutter County spokesperson Chuck Smith.
He says that when storms hit the Sacramento Valley, the rainwater ends up in Sutter County.
"Sutter County is entirely on the floor of the Sacramento Valley," said Smith.
Sutter County Office of Emergency Management claims the rain runoff comes from neighboring Placer County but how does it get to Sutter? We're getting answers.
"We're getting water from our east that runs across into the canals in south Sutter County and ultimately gets channeled to the Sacramento River. When we have large storms like we just had these canals get full and water spreads over the roads," said Smith.
With more development in Placer County and less ground for the water to sink into, flooding in Sutter County has gotten increasingly worse.
"They build more houses and here you go," said Joe Christiano who harvested his rice crop before the storm hit but not all farmers were as lucky.
"It's not going to be fun for the people that still have it out there," says Christiano.
Sutter County says they've had conversations with Placer about how to mitigate the issue, solutions are unclear.
Sutter County officials ask that drivers steer clear of the flooded roadways.
CBS13 reached out to Placer County but they have not yet responded.
