‘Surreal’ scenes greet Gavin Newsom on visit to Corcoran and flooded Tulare Lake

Against a backdrop of flooded farmland and tractors and farm buildings sitting amid several feet of water, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he and his administration are keenly aware of the problems confronting farmers, farmworkers and businesses in and around the historic Tulare Lake basin.

The lake, dry in most years since it was drained in the late 1800s, has sprung back to life as a result of a series of atmospheric river storms that plowed into central California in January, February and March. The deluges in the southern San Joaquin Valley and the adjacent foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada swelled local lakes and rivers beyond their capacity, forcing water officials to allow water to flood the basin, inundating thousands of acres of farmland.

Yet, Newsom told reporters gathered south of Corcoran at the Hansen Ranch equipment barn – nearly surrounded by water – more problems lie ahead as a record snowpack releases its water this spring and summer.

“What is significant to people who are not in this part of the state is that you can look at a scene like this and think … the worst is behind us,” Newsom said. “In fact it’s quite the contrary. Every day we’re seeing an incremental half-inch, inch of new water present itself in this basin.”

“As a consequence, we need to not only maintain our vigilance, but we can’t be impatient regarding the impending floods and damage that we’ll incur here in very short order,” he added.

Newsom spent part of Tuesday afternoon visiting businesses and farms in and around Corcoran and Allensworth before perching on a levee on the Hansen Ranch, where seabirds uncharacteristically chattered in the background as he gave his remarks.

‘Under water in a matter of weeks if not months’

“This is for me a surreal experience,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of disasters as governor. … Usually in a place like this, the worst is behind us. But in fact where we’re standing will likely be under water in a matter of weeks if not months.”

Newsom and Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, both noted that the last time there was a major flood in the Tulare Lake basin in the early 1980s, it took as much as two years for the water to evaporate or be pumped out to allow farming to fully resume.

Nemeth said her agency, as well as federal and local offices in Kings and Tulare counties, are collaborating to explore ways to minimize the flood potential from the coming snowmelt even after this winter’s rains caused about 50 levee breaches in the area.

“All of that snowmelt, without interruption, ends up right here” in the old lake basin, Nemeth said. Officials are working to “identify the ways in which we can be sure we are diverting as much water in advance of it ever arriving at the lake bed.”

Possible solutions include finding places and installing pumping equipment to inject water back into underground aquifers that have been depleted by years of overpumping during drought years, she said, or diverting into other systems to move it out of the region “and away from the communities that populate the Central Valley and that make up the Central Valley workforce.”

But, Newsom and Nemeth cautioned, solutions take time.

As they and other officials addressed reporters, heavy earth-moving equipment could be seen to the northeast working on a large levee that stands between the rising water level in the old lakebed and the town of Corcoran and a pair of nearby state prisons that are at risk if the levee fails.

Newsom said people he spoke with on his tour Tuesday “are concerned about what’s coming in the next few weeks.”

“People here are living literally a stone’s throw away. You can see a house underwater, and others will likely be underwater” within weeks or months, the governor said. “We recognize what’s at stake with the levee, we recognize the impacts on the prisons, we recognize the prospects of displacement (and) property damage.”

Newsom noted that both the state and federal governments have set up websites for families and others who face hardships because they’ve been displaced from their homes or their farm employers aren’t able to go about their work.

The state’s Department of Social Services website is cdss.ca.gov. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s website is disasterassistance.gov. Nancy Ward, director of the California Office of Emergency Services, said it is important for people who are being affected by the flooding to visit the websites and apply for assistance as soon as possible.