A massive series of storms are bearing down on the north state and several communities expect double digit inches of rain in the coming days. The impending downpour is forcing private citizens and public workers to prepare for the worst.
Five straight days of rain is expected to bring flash floods, clogged storm drains and a little bit of chaos.
All day long Tuesday at the Redding corporation yard, people waited in line to fill sandbags.
“Well you start with sandbags, you just seal everything up tight and then you just go from there,” said Devon Daughtery who was one of dozens of people that were hoping to protect their home from flooding.
“I mean if you gotta put on rain gear and come out into it, then that is what you go to do, but sandbags are definitely the first light of defense,” said Daugherty
“We have gone through about 2-thousand sandbags already, we have ordered 3-thousand more,” said Chuck Aukland of the Redding Public Work Department.
The Redding streets department provides the free sandbags, but on Tuesday they were also repaving certain areas to improve drainage.
“It is an issue we have had for the last few years, having a lot of ponding in this alley so we are trying to fix that,” said Aukland.
Preventing ponding of water on streets will be the main focus of the city's storm drain department in coming days.
“It’s going to be city wide with this kind of water, so we are going to have problems everywhere,” said John Stacher of the Redding Storm Drain Department.
In preparation crews spent the day clearing out problem areas is some of the city’s 30 miles of drainage canals.
“Make sure you are not raking your leaves out into the gutter, leaves will clog drains just about faster than anything,” said Stacher.
But if drains do clog and roads happen to flood, emergency responders urge you to stay away.
Officials say the western half of Redding is more prone to flooding. The drainage system in that area is older and the area has more trees, so drains are more likely to clog.
