Milk Producers Council Report: Commentary on Potential Upcoming Major Flooding in San Joaquin Valley

Courtesy of Johnny Gailey, Delta View Water Association

There are already a number of animal facilities that have been evacuated and more of them are doing everything in their power to try and keep the water out. We have been praying for rain and wow, has God ever delivered. Unfortunately, we do not have the storage capacity for these once in a lifetime events. Lake Success and Lake Kaweah are both running over the spillways after last week's storms. Now with 4-6 more inches forecast for next week in the Kaweah and Tule watersheds there will be no regulating the outflows. It is possible that portions of the city of Visalia and Goshen may experience some flooding by Wednesday of next week. Pine Flat dam on the Kings River still has around 300,000 AF of space before it spills out and is also fully uncontrolled. This is expected to happen in the next 30 days with the massive snowpack above.

Dam Level Hourly Reports

What this all means is that the flooding that we have seen so far is just the pre-game show to what we will be seeing for the next 4+ months. You can add to the equation that all facilities to store water on the Kern river are projected to be at capacity by July.

Welcome back Tulare Lake! It might not be in the exact location it used to be due to the mind boggling amount of subsidence that has occurred, but it will reform in the same general area.

In making decisions about whether to evacuate livestock, not only do you need to consider whether or not they will flood, but will roads be open for feed, milk trucks, and employees to actually care for the animals.

Please stay safe and remember that God does always answer prayers, just not always in ways that you might expect!