Volunteers remove 200 tons of flood debris from SLO County ranch: ‘They took a big hit’
Volunteers helped remove more than 200 tons of flood debris and dirt from an Oceano ranch on Saturday.
All 12 acres of Pat and Vickie Cardoza’s ranch flooded during severe winter storms in January, according to a news release.
In some areas, water levels reached up to 15 feet due to runoff from Arroyo Grande Creek, which ran over a failing levee and flooded their home and farmland south of Oceano, the release said.
Some residents near the Arroyo Grande Creek Levee were forced to evacuate.
“Because the Cardozas were located downstream near where the creek meets the dunes and ocean, their ranch saw a brunt of the damage,” the release said, “with mud, wood, trash and debris washing onto their ranch from miles upstream.”
On Saturday, Team Rubicon, a nonprofit organization of veterans that provide disaster relief to communities, gathered a dozen volunteers to help clean up the ranch.
“We’re just trying to provide some help for Pat and his family here, because they took a big hit,” Denny Johnson of Team Rubicon said in the release. “We’re not self-serving at all. We feel good when we’re able to help someone else, and that’s always a good feeling. … At the end of the day, we got something done for those people, and that’s what’s really going to matter.”
The Holloway Group, an agriculture and environmental services company with offices in Paso Robles and Bakersfield, brought four semi tractor trailer trucks and volunteers that hauled away about 200 tons of dirt.
According to the release, the dirt will be “re-used by the Santa Lucia Sportsmen’s Association on its range in Atascadero, as well as for flood control and erosion repairs at vineyards in the North County.”
Pat Cardoza and his son-in-law Jeff Ward ran the tractors that loaded mud and debris into the trucks, the release said.
According to Holloway CEO Brian Maxted, 99% of the material “came from somewhere else.”
“It didn’t come from their farm,” Maxted said in the release, “but it all came to their farm, flooded in here, and now they’re having to deal with it.”
“We’re happy to do our part,” he added.
More than 50 animals were displaced from the Cardoza ranch in January, although they are slowly making their way back to the ranch, according to the release.
Organizers said cleanup efforts were scheduled to continue through the weekend.
This story was originally published February 12, 2023 at 1:25 PM.
