In the heart of California, some rural communities are facing the prospect of being marooned or flooded out by rising water.
David Merritt, general manager for the Kings River Conservation District, said the Pine Flat Reservoir about 50 miles upstream can hold up to 1 million acre feet of water, but is expected to receive more than 3 million acre feet this spring from the melting snow. Officials have been forced to increase the flow of water out of the reservoir to make space for more, Merritt said.
In a week, more than 200 people volunteered to help neighbors through the network, and the group's website received more than 4,000 hits.The winter rains were welcomed by California's parched cities and desperate growers, who have been grappling with intense drought for the past several years.
Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist, said water inflows into some reservoirs are expected to double though he doesn't expect the warming trend to cause immediate flooding in residential areas. It isn’t the first time Kings County, home to 150,000 people in the fertile San Joaquin Valley, has faced these challenges.
“If that water rises above that amount, we will have water coming into our city and we will be in a critical situation,” said Greg Gatzka, Corcoran's city manager.
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