KINGS COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Kings County continued to face historic floods around the city of Corcoran Thursday.
It has destroyed everything in its way; several roads have been left closed as a result. Like Highway 43 just east of the city, closed as floodwater covered the roadway.
It was just part of the jaw-dropping sights across the area, like west of Corcoran as well. Floods created a massive, ocean-like body of water, on what used to be the Tulare Lake bottom.
“This water’s not gonna go away. It doesn’t go anywhere once it gets there. It’s got to evaporate and be absorbed into the ground. That’s gonna take a long time,” said Sgt. Nate Ferrier, public information officer for the Kings County Sheriff’s Office.
Sgt. Ferrier said it’s not an option to pump the water out of the area.
“We can try to open certain levees in certain areas and try to move the water as best we can to fields that are better equipped to handle the water, but ultimately there’s just so much water it’s hard to move it around,” he said.
The water appeared to have risen in some areas Thursday, like off Sixth Avenue in Corcoran, now swallowed up more by water than the day before. With so much snow in the mountains, people could continue to see it for months to come.
“At the end of the day, this water you see like behind me and other streams and rivers going in here, the Kings River, and Cross Creek, and the Tule River, they’re gonna keep flowing all summer long and it’s all gonna go into that lake bottom,” said Sgt. Ferrier.
Sheriff’s deputies have been forced to close a bridge on Houston Avenue in Hanford as well, as the water, now raging in Cross Creek, severely damaged it. Repairs will also be delayed.
“We use this road a lot to get back and forth from Visalia and different places here in our county. It’s a highly traveled road. People are just gonna have to drive around it.”
The county once again wants to urge the importance of ‘road closed signs’, and asked that all residents obey them, and not travel past them. Resources are stretched thin as is.
