Tuesday updates: FEMA resources coming to Fresno County; San Joaquin, Kings rivers closed

The latest atmospheric river arrived in the Fresno area overnight, bringing rain and potential flood conditions to many areas.



Here are some highlighted impacts from the storm:

Highway 168 closed

6:50 p.m.: Caltrans reported Highway 168 is open in both directions following a closure near Tamarack Pass due to snow.

4:00 p.m.: Caltrans announced shortly after 4 p.m. that Highway 168 was closed due to heavy snowfall on the way to Huntington Lake in eastern Fresno County.

The highway was closed in both directions from Tamarack Creek to Huntington Lake Road.

The CHP online incident page at 2:50 p.m. reported an avalanche of snow had fallen across both lanes of the highway near China Peak Ski Resort.

FEMA supplies headed to Fresno County

2:15 p.m. Fresno County has been in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is set to receive support for the region. In a Tuesday afternoon update, the county’s office of emergency services said FEMA is sending 60 supply trailers to the area.

The trailers will be housed at the Fresno Fairgrounds and have enough food, water and other supplies for 20,000 for up to three days.

The city of Firebaugh in western Fresno County, meanwhile, is under an evacuation warning, as officials work to mitigate possible flooding from the San Joaquin River. Crews are currently setting up a four-foot wall of sandbags along a 2,500-foot stretch of the river.

The risk of flooding in nearby Mendota is low, but possible, officials said.

Lake Kaweah releasing water as dam fills up, officials say. May cause flooding

Rivers closed to recreation

1:30 p.m.: The Kings River and San Joaquin River are closed to recreational users, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said in an update.

The Kings River is off limits from Pine Flat Dam to the Tulare and Kings County lines and the San Joaquin is closed from Millerton Dam to the Merced County line.

“Sheriff John Zanoni has made this order in the best interest of public safety. ... The decision has been made due to continuous large amounts of rainfall and water runoff throughout the county, which is causing extremely dangerous conditions,” the Sheriff’s Office said in an emailed statement.

At Pine Flat Dam, water releases into the Kings River were reduced on Monday evening in anticipating of increased runoff downstream, the Kings River Water Association said in an online post.

The reduction allows essentially drains the river for “anticipated flood flows” from Mill Creek, a Kings River tributary below the dam.

The runoff was predicted to peak at late Tuesday night.

“That unregulated stream, which usually carries small flows or none at all, is forecast to reach a peak discharge of 9,550 cubic feet per second to the Kings River, a mile downstream from Pine Flat Dam, around midnight tonight,” according to a statement from the Kings River Water Association. “Last week, Mill Creek flows to the river reached 18,860 cfs but the ‘draining’ strategy downstream prevented all but localized high water problems.”

Power outage in the Fresno County foothills

12:30 p.m.: An outage near Prather and Auberry in the eastern Fresno County foothills was mostly restored, with 128 PG&E customers now without power. The estimated time of restoration was 3 a.m. Wednesday.

In west Fresno, 528 customers near Clinton and Polk avenues lost power around noon for about 45 minutes before a full restoration. A second outage of 202 customers in the same area was reported at 12:42 p.m.



11:22 a.m. More than 1,600 users were without power Tuesday as a storm rolled in the San Joaquin Valley and the neighboring foothills in Fresno County, PG&E said.

The power company reported the outage to 1,656 users in Prather and Auberry on Tuesday morning.

There was no estimated time for restoration, and the outage appeared to be due to inclement weather, PG&E said.

Winds up to 45 mph

9 a.m. The San Joaquin Valley was expected to feel high winds Tuesday as a rainstorm continued through the day.

The Valley was in for winds of about 20 mph with gusts up to 45 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.

The winds were forecast to be higher — up to 65 mph gusts — along the Central Coast and the western edge of the Valley, the service said.

Flood advisories, warnings

8 a.m. All of the San Joaquin Valley was under a flood advisory Tuesday as another storm arrived in the region.

Sometimes heavy rainfall was forecast through the afternoon, which could lead to minor flooding and water over roadways, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.

The warning extended to anywhere below 4,000 feet until Wednesday morning, forecasters said.

Officials reminded residents to stay clear of flooded areas and not try to drive through swollen waterways.

Thursday and Friday should give the region a break from the atmospheric river, but yet another storm is likely during the coming weekend, the service said.

Evacuation warnings remained in place for much of the eastern parts of Fresno County, east of the Friant-Kern Canal, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. A map of the riskiest areas also showed warnings near Reedley, Kingsburg and Sanger.

Residents in Madera County have been subject to warnings and evacuation orders. The latest on Monday included the Cavin Lane Area: Cavin Lane, Shadow Creek Road, Vinnard Drive, Deer Path Circle, Venado Drive, Venado Court, Quail Mountain Way, Mattie Fhy Road, Winners Circle Drive, Mattie Fhy Court and Holly Lane.

Merced and particularly Planada have been battered by recent storms.

Merced saw about one-quarter to half an inch of rain on Sunday with the Stevinson area recording about .48 inches of rain, the service said.

The Merced River was recorded to be at about 70 feet in Stevinson on Monday and was forecast to rise above 72 feet Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning. Flood stage is 71 feet.

On Monday morning, Bear Creek was recorded to be at 13.5 feet and is forecast to rise just above the flood stage of 23 feet late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, according to forecasters.

Late last week and the weekend saw flash floods, tornado warnings and emergency rescues around the Valley.

Northbound Highway 99 remained reduced to one lane on Tuesday morning in the Earlimart-Delano area of southern Tulare County between Avenues 24 and 56. That stretch of the highway has been flooded since Sunday.