FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The question everyone is asking is how many powerful storms are going to be hitting California.
Experts anticipate that this round of storms will be the last round of heavy rain the area will see for some time but all these storms could have a lasting effect on the valley floor.
“We may have storms go to our north and just crush our area with some light precipitation but this is going to be the last strong one we have for a while,” said Meteorologist David Spector, who is with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Hanford.
Spector says storms hitting now will likely cause problems and increase flooding across the valley.
“The flooding, its gonna lead to some road closures and inconvenience a lot of people, some low-lying areas may be inundated for a while too,” Spector added.
We are going to get a break from the heavy rainfall as experts anticipate this will be the last of the heaviest precipitation. Brian Russell, assistant director of public works with the city of Fresno says they’re prepping ahead of the damage that comes with this historic rain.
“We’re using these dry days to try to get ahead of it, we’re making sure our pump systems and our drainage systems are in order and operating properly,” said Russell.
Experts say the storms we’ve seen this past winter and the start of spring will definitely have a lasting effect on farmlands, crop production, and bodies of water.
With over 17,000 miles of roads public works maintains Russell, says he’s concentrating their crews on the roads.
“The potholes have been the problem, we are just experiencing a higher problem of potholes than ever before, we are using our crews in a pothole blitz and really trying to get as many of those holes filled as possible” added Russell.
RussellFr says they need residents to help out by calling 311 or reporting road conditions to the fres-go app.
With all this rain and snow, officials say residents could see some flooding well into the summer months.