It was a long morning for residents along Paseo Campanero's Street in South Chico Friday morning, as heavy rain led to flooding in several area's. "The water was all the way up to the back door edge," according to Chico resident Christian Steinbach, "and everything was floating on this patio. The patio was probably a couple of feet deep."
Christian says he's never seen the water level rise so high, overflowing into his back yard, and even trickling into their home. "It was pretty amazing to see, the kids were looking at it. To have the river be almost as wide as the American River in your back yard."
Steinbach told our crews, flood waters washed through several back yards lining Comanche Creek, and Friday morning several residents found themselves collecting items that had washed away. "Everything is down the whole creek. Other neighbors were down there, were pulling stuff out. It happened, probably, I want to say around three in the morning, when we noticed most of the stuff floating. But we retrieved some stuff, but I'm sure other things are way down the creek by now."
Most of the items flowed to a tunnel under the road, clogging the drainage, and forcing the water to block the area's only exit. Eric Root says "it was about a foot deep over the road, so a lot of people that live down the street were stuck back there."
Luckily, the rain ended early in the morning, and the water receded quickly. Now Steinbach is planning his next move before the next storm. "The county has some sand bagging options for us, so as soon as we need them, we'll just give them a call, go grab some bags, and do the back door."
