Morro Bay declares local emergency after storm floods parts of city. ‘It really sucks’
Residents of Morro Bay’s Silver City West mobile home park sloshed through streams of rushing brown water on Friday morning as flooding forced them to evacuate their homes.
The city of Morro Bay declared a local emergency on Friday as a major winter storm dropped rain across San Luis Obispo County, causing creek levels around the region to rise.
Little Morro Creek swelled far past its banks Friday morning.
Floodwaters thick with plant debris and sediment flowed under decks at and slammed into sandbags at Silver City West, located on Main Street in northern Morro Bay.
The Morro Bay Fire Department ordered mobile home park residents living along the creek to evacuate, while others were under an evacuation warning.
“It really sucks because we’ve already been through this just ... two months ago,” Silver City West resident Caroline Israel said as she put her three dogs and a cat into the back of her car to evacuate to a nearby friend’s house.
In early January, a severe winter storm forced residents of the mobile home village to flee as floodwaters that reached two feet deep tore through the village.
Israel’s car was damaged by the floodwaters, so she used money granted from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to buy another car.
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t have anywhere to live,” Israel said. “This is very stressful.”
Israel’s neighbor, Paul Abrahms, said Friday that he wasn’t going to evacuate, hopefull that the floodwaters wouldn’t rise past his steps and into his home.
“It’s not like it’ll wash my home away,” he said. “It’s me and my two dogs in here. Everything’s charged up. We’re ready to see how this goes.”
In an attempt to fend off severe flooding, city of Morro Bay workers used construction equipment to break up large debris that had flowed into Little Morro Creek and got stuck under the Main Street bridge.
Morro Bay declares local emergency
The rest of Morro Bay wasn’t left dry
South Bay Boulevard was shut down as floodwaters engulfed the low-laying road next to the Morro Bay estuary.
Officials also closed Lower State Park Road through Morro Bay State Park, Main Street between Errol Street and the Highway 1 on- and off-ramps, and Quintana Road from South Bay Boulevard to Highway 1.
Morro Bay Fire Department Chief Daniel McCrain said that his staff was outside monitoring conditions around the city to ensure residents and visitors stay safe during the storm.
“We are anticipating heavy rainfall around noon today and that does coincide with high tide,” McCrain said. “So we are monitoring that situation and will be issuing further (evacuation) orders as necessary.”
High tide in Morro Bay was expected to come at around 12:15 p.m. Friday and reach 3.22 feet.
Rising tides can further back up creeks and rivers that are already rushing far past their banks.
Morro Creek was at about 10.4 feet as of 11:15 a.m., just about two feet under the bottom of the Main Street bridge, according to the county Public Works Department.
Chorro Creek was at 13 feet as of 11:15 a.m., breaching the bottom of the 12-foot-high bridge on Canet Road, according to the county.
This story was originally published March 10, 2023 at 12:25 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story mistakenly said that San Luis Obispo County Public Works Department workers used construction equipment to break up large debris that had flowed into Little Morro Creek and got stuck under the Main Street bridge. The error has been corrected.
