Water still high and fast in Modesto, but starting to recede

There were no major impacts to the Modesto area from the latest storm, officials say. But that’s of little comfort to families who suffered from flooding and waterways moving higher and faster than they have in years.

About 5 a.m. Thursday, Sharilyn Nelson was awakened by the noise of a 100-year-old oak tree “ripping out the ground” and falling into Dry Creek at her Wycliffe Drive home in Modesto. She said she and her family are “devastated. That tree was a part of our home.”

She said experiencing the changing seasons by looking at that tree through her home’s windows always filled her heart with joy. “A part of history is lost due to Mother Nature, but family memories will live on,” Nelson said, “and the tree will always be a part of that.”

Out at the Riverbank city limits, Jolene Grokholsky and her family learned how bad things can get when you live on the area’s lowest spot along Litt Road. She said Thursday that the property they bought in March near Claribel Road and Terminal Avenue turned out to be “ground zero” for flooding because of the awful drainage along the road.

The main house is on a raised foundation, but in September, her husband added a mother-in-law quarters on a flat slab. The addition, a storage room and the garage all flooded in this storm. “It was about a half-inch away from flooding the main house late Tuesday and early Wednesday,” she said Thursday. “I was in a panic. I could see water moving right up toward the floorboards.”

They hired a company to help, which got permission to pump into the nearby Modesto Irrigation District canal. The county also had a crew pumping for several hours. “All Tuesday afternoon, we had about eight 3-inch pumps going, to put it in the canal,” Grokholsky said.

But there was so much water, it went down by maybe just an inch, she said. After the county and the company crews left, the family continued with two generator-powered pumps, but one got so hot, it blew up, she said.

Wednesday evening and Thursday, the water receded to where Grokholsky could see the tires on her husband’s truck in the garage. “It’s a bad situation.”

In Modesto, Fire Department crews were checking homes on Scenic Drive along Dry Creek, Battalion Chief Randy Anderson said Thursday morning. No homes were flooded, though the water got close to some, he said.

Early in the morning, the creek took down a tree around La Loma Avenue, which in turn knocked down a power line, leaving one home on El Rio Avenue in the dark. A Modesto Irrigation District crew strung a new line to restore power.

John Hertle said the water flowing through the area was down about 2 feet from its peak. Even at the highest flow, his house still was several feet above water level, he said.

Hertle, who’s lived in the home with his family for about five months, wasn’t rattled by the high water. He grew up on the Stanislaus River, knew all about the flooding of 1997 and knew what he was getting into when he moved creekside, he said.

The Stanislaus County Office of Emergency Services – StanEmergency on Facebook and Twitter – reported no large impacts.

“OES continues to monitor and currently as of this morning we are seeing the highest surge of water moving down the Tuolumne west of Modesto,” Assistant Director Dale Skyles said about 9:30 a.m. There were some localized flooding issues, but nothing life-threatening.

“Anywhere along the river banks, yesterday was the highest peak we’ve seen in this series of storms,” he said. The San Joaquin River was forecast to peak Thursday and Friday but is not expected to reach monitor stage, he said.

By Thursday afternoon, the Tuolumne River level in Modesto was receding. Dry Creek was receding all day.

In downtown Modesto, measurable rain ended by midmorning, according to Modesto Irrigation District data. At 4 p.m., the day’s total was 0.15 inches.

After a slight chance of showers Thursday night, that should be the end of rain until Tuesday night and Wednesday, when there’s a chance of more.

This story was originally published January 12, 2017 at 7:28 AM with the headline "Water still high and fast in Modesto, but starting to recede."