Doris Padilla, 65, stood almost catatonic Thursday outside her mud-covered house on Florence Street in Pajaro, unable to begin the grueling work of rebuilding.
Unlike the neighbors busying themselves shoveling contaminated mud and debris and moving waterlogged furniture and carpets out of their homes, Padilla just couldn’t move. She waited outside her house for her son to come home from work and start cleaning up.
“It makes me feel desperate, I mean all I want to do is start picking stuff up, but I know I can’t,” Padilla said. “We really can’t walk around much and see all that was damaged because I’m afraid I’ll slip and fall and hurt myself. So we’re just waiting.”
Monterey County authorities Thursday morning lifted evacuation orders for the flood-ravaged farm town, allowing residents to return to their homes in most cases for the first time since they were forced to flee in the middle of the night March 11 after a levee failed upriver and inundated their community.
County officials who lifted the orders at 10 a.m. — a day earlier than they had indicated Tuesday — cautioned that Pajaro is still far from livable, with no water or sewer service and many homes requiring restoration work. A county spokesperson said they were able to lift the order because utility inspections, damage assessments and street cleanings were completed earlier than expected.
Still, many of those who returned to Pajaro on Thursday to assess the damage of their homes will not be able to stay the night and will again have to find somewhere else to sleep.
“There are health risks to people returning to Pajaro,” a Monterey County notice said. “The county and Pajaro Sunny Mesa Services are working diligently to restore the sewer system. There is no potable water and toilets can’t be flushed. It isn’t recommended that residents stay until sewer and water are restored. Those entering the area do so at their own risk.”
The advisory said that cleaning, toilet, showers, handwashing and laundry stations, along with bottled water, and information booths will be made available at Pajaro Park and Pajaro Middle School, and that Monterey Salinas Transit will provide transportation.
Heavy equipment was operating in the area, working on debris removal and sewage hauling, county officials advised. Around town, trucks advertising to “haul your trash” stopped by to pick up personal effects residents spent years saving up to buy.
In Pajaro, people had become increasingly frustrated with the ongoing evacuation order and confronted local officials at a Tuesday evening “town hall” at a temporary shelter at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. More than 500 were staying at shelters set up by the county, while hundreds of others have been sleeping in cars, sheds and hotel rooms.
Daniel Padilla, Doris’ husband, lighted a cigarette on his front yard as his next door neighbors dumped ruined belongings on the sidewalk out front, exhaling deeply and taking in the destruction before treading through the mud to see what else he could save. After experiencing a similar flood in 1995, the couple know there’s a long recovery ahead — and that they’ll likely have to do most of the recovery alone.
After that flood, the Padillas said, Federal Emergency Management Agency aid amounted to about $3,000 — not even enough to replace the carpet.
“Only through sacrifice were we able to get back to where we were,” Doris Padilla said. “A new bed, new furniture, new walls, new floors. It’s all going to have to be replaced. And not being able to do anything right now makes me feel sad. It makes me feel useless.”
Next door, four farmworkers living inside an Accessory Dwelling Unit walked into their home to find mud two inches deep covering every surface, the ripples of moving water still visible on the silty deposits.
Rey Osorio couldn’t believe it: After living 21 years in the U.S. — most of the time spent picking fruit in the Pajaro Valley — he never thought he’d come home to nothing. He thought the early days of struggle in his immigrant experience were over. But as he used a mud-stained mop to clear his room, he tried to stay optimistic.
“There’s nothing you can do except get your hands dirty and start to clean,” Osorio said. “That’s really my main focus right now: clean. I can’t really think about anything else. I can’t think about what I’ve lost. I just have to start from zero again and get started.”
Red Cross workers patrolled Pajaro streets connecting with residents to see what they’ll need. The county and other officials have set up centers across town for people to shower, do laundry, go to the bathroom or pick up cleaning supplies, shovels and everything they’ll need to clean up. Workers said the resounding need is bodies: volunteers, workers or anyone to help clean sludge or move furniture.
At the Pajaro Food Center, a grocery store decimated by floodwaters, Supervisor Glenn Church, who represents Pajaro, coordinated the arrival and dispatching of dumpsters to homes. He is also heading a committee set up to address Pajaro’s needs.
For too long, Church said, the small town has been forgotten, but he’s dedicated to make sure Pajaroans are made whole again after this tragedy.
“The Pajaro Food Center, I come here all the time to grab a burrito, I get my tires changed here in Pajaro, I go to the bakery here, I get my car fixed here, I eat at the restaurants here, this is my community,” he said. “This place has been neglected to a large degree, but we’re not going away. We’re in it for the long haul.”
