LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – While Clear Lake’s waters have started to recede, it could be weeks before local residents forced to evacuate their homes due to flooding could be able to safely return to their homes, according to a Lakeport city official.
On Monday, the city of Lakeport issued mandatory evacuations for the Esplanade Street neighborhood, as well as three lakeside trailer parks – Lucky Four, Aqua Village and Willopoint Resort.
That was followed on Tuesday by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office issuing advisory evacuations for low-lying lakeshore areas of Clearlake Oaks, the Clear Lake Keys, and the Lands End and Corinthian Bay areas near Lakeport.
That same day, Sheriff Brian Martin declared a local emergency.
Then, on Thursday, the city of Clearlake issued its own advisory evacuations for the low-lying areas on Lakeshore Drive between Kern Street and San Joaquin Avenue, according to City Manager Greg Folsom.
There are a number of homes in the Lower Lakeshore Drive area that are surrounded by water or possibly have water that has intruded into them, he said.
About half the road in those areas is covered with water, reducing it to about one lane, and it’s covered with debris. Clearlake Public Works and Lake County Special Works also are doing work in the area, Folsom said.
Folsom said the residents in those areas are not under mandatory evacuation at this time, but they’re advising people of the potential hazards in staying due to the high water levels and potential for contaminated water.
Early Thursday afternoon, Clear Lake peaked at around 10.6 feet Rumsey before its elevation started to recede, according to Public Works Director Doug Herren. Herren said the lake’s elevation is expected to be at about 10.5 feet on Friday.
During Thursday evening’s Clearlake City Council meeting, Herren said he had spoken with Tim O’Halloran, the general manager of the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, which owns the water rights to Clear Lake and also operates the Cache Creek Dam.
Herren said O’Halloran indicated that the Cache Creek Dam was going to be shut down temporarily on Friday while Yolo Flood removes debris – from trees to refrigerators – lodged in the dam.
The dam is expected to be closed for a few hours while the debris is removed. “It’s a lengthy process,” Herren said.
Yolo Flood reported that it began flood control releases at the dam on Jan. 8 to keep Clear Lake “in line with the winter fill curve and below monitoring stage.”
Since a series of heavy storms began later in January, the dam has been releasing water at high volume, with releases at more than 4,800 cubic feet per second early Friday, down from more than 6,000 cubic feet per second earlier this week.
At the lake’s current elevation of just under 10.6 feet Rumsey – and even with no additional rainfall – it could be two to three weeks before the waters recede enough that people can return home, according to Kevin Ingram, the Lakeport Community Development director and the city’s public information officer for the flood event.
No additional evacuations in Lakeport are anticipated, although the city is closely monitoring the situation at an apartment complex on Royale Avenue and at Royale Shores, where a condominium complex is located, Ingram said.
Ingram asked that people stop driving on Royale Avenue, as it’s causing water to go into some of the apartments.
In the city of Lakeport, the number of evacuees as of Thursday night totaled 225, with 175 of them from Willopoint Resort, Ingram said.
That number grew in part due to Lakeport Police officers and Public Works staff evacuating additional people from Willopoint on Wednesday, according to Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said that, due to increased health and safety issues in the lakeside trailer park – which has no sewer or water services currently – his officers checked back to find out how many residents there may have stayed despite the mandatory evacuation order.
The Lakeport Fire Protection District brought police a boat, and they made their way into the park to help bring people out, Rasmussen said.
They thought there were about six people in the park. “We found about 25,” Rasmussen said.
Beyond making sure people are out of harm’s way, Rasmussen said his big concern is keeping people out of the evacuated areas to protect properties from theft.
He has an extra officer on each shift, with his staff now working into overtime to keep stepped-up patrols in place. The officers have been assigned new equipment for patrolling the flooded areas – life jackets and waders.
So far, while they have found some people in the closed areas, it was determined that they weren’t there for the purpose of theft, and so no arrests for crime-related activity have been made, Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said the city is working closely with the Lake County Office of Emergency Services on mission and equipment requests.
Specifically, the city has made requests for a high clearance vehicle so Public Works staff can conduct maintenance on utilities. Rasmussen said that includes monitoring a portable pump set up in the middle of First Street that’s being used to pump stormwater out of the city sewer system so it won’t overflow.
Other equipment the city is requesting include light stands and message boards for closures, Rasmussen said.
Ingram said city staff are currently working on initial damage estimates for the California Office of Emergency Services and the Lake County Office of Emergency Services.
Part of the challenge, he said, is completing those initial estimates before the water has fully receded, which will be necessary to get a full picture of the situation.
They’re also working with the Lake County Office of Emergency Services to arrange for more evacuee housing, he said.
That’s necessary, as the evacuation center set up at the Lakeport Seventh-day Adventist Church has hit its capacity of about 100 people, Ingram said.
City staff also are continuing to run an emergency operations center in City Hall around the clock.
On Thursday night, in addition to Rasmussen and Ingram, several other city staffers were on hand to monitor the situation and respond to phone calls received on a special hotline number at 707-263-5614.
Ingram said that on Monday, the first day the evacuations were ordered, the emergency operations center received about 100 calls. By Thursday, the call volume had tapered off to about 30 calls for the day.
He said the calls have ranged from people asking for checks on family members, to inquiring if their neighborhood is under evacuation, to timelines for when they can return home.
On that last point, “We unfortunately don’t have a very good answer for them yet,” he said.
Rasmussen was an officer with the department during the 1995 flood, when the lake’s elevation hit 10.72 feet Rumsey. He said that flood was similar to the current situation.
Then there was the February 1998 flood, which Rasmussen called a “more significant” flood event, when the lake hit 11.44 feet Rumsey, almost a foot higher than its current elevation.
The lake goes down about a tenth of a foot every day, with no inflow, Rasmussen said.
This weekend’s storm is forecast to bring between 1 and 2 inches of rain, so as for how quickly the lake’s elevation will continue to decrease, “We’re not sure,” Rasmussen said.
Important contact numbers
– City of Lakeport Emergency Operations Center, currently available 24 hours a day: 707-263-5614.
– The county of Lake and the Office of Emergency Services has established an information telephone number available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for residents affected by the recent storms: 707-263-3450.
– Evacuation center at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1111 Park Way, Lakeport: 707-263-6002.
– If your home or business is inundated, please contact the Lake County Community Development office at 707-263-2221 and Lake County Environmental Health at 707-263-1164 before reoccupying the structure.
– Lake County Animal Care and Control: For people who have pets and need assistance, call 707-263-0278.
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