SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Looking out to where the edge of the water usually was, around 120 yards away, Trorina Sparks couldn’t help but see the lighter side of her home now being a part of the San Joaquin River — and the new neighbors she had.

“The beaver was right here swimming around,” she said. “And then my neighbor was in town with her son. Her Ring camera came on, and she saw the possums swimming in the water.”

Trorina and her human neighbors are currently under an evacuation order due to flooding from dam releases, snowpack melt and rain. She and some of her neighbors have decided not to leave because, she noted, they’re well prepared.

“These houses are designed to be on the river’s edge, and the water does come up,” she said. “So we’ve been flooded several times.”

Trorina and her neighbors are not the only homeowners under flooding evacuation orders in San Joaquin County.

Around 10 miles North at the Haven Acres Mobile Homes Park, they too are now resorting to boats instead of cars to gain access to their homes.

All-in-all, San Joaquin Emergency Services director Tiffany Heyer said 100 people have been affected by the evacuation order. She said they’re closely monitoring weather patterns and hoping for colder weather to keep the snow from melting.

“We know that our reservoirs are operating above their top of conservation, so they’re having to continuously make those releases,” Heyer said. “So we know that we are going to see pressure on that part of the San Joaquin River for the next couple of weeks.”

For Trorina, knowing that the water will likely be around for a while yet is certainly not ideal, she said, but she feels more for the farmers who are losing crops and those who may not be able to return to their mobile homes for the foreseeable future.

“And they got travel trailers that are all broken down, and they can’t go anywhere,” Trorina said.

Trorina added that she’ll continue to monitor water levels and make sure her neighbors are safe — even the aquatic ones if they need it.