Rain brings flooding to Oceano, Grover Beach
The steady rain is welcome drought relief but its also brought more frustration for people living in one notorious corner of the Central Coast.
Whenever it rains steadily like it is now on the Central Coast the intersection of Highway 1 and 13th Street in Oceano is always knee-deep with floodwater and many of the locals are fed up with it.
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“Nobody is doing anything about it”, Cisneros says, “we pay tax, we pay everything, and all the time its the same thing, I don’t know probably they don’t care.”
Caltrans, one of several agencies with responsibility for the chronic flooding problem, is again forced to close the inundated portion of Highway 1 shutting it down to motorists and local merchants.
“We need it (rain)”, Cisneros says, “but we need somebody to fix that.”
Its a similar soggy situation on South Fourth Street in neighboring Grover Beach, a portion of the road once again closed due to flooding.
“For as far back as I can remember the streets, Oceano counts too, streets, they need to fix it”, says lifelong resident Maria Canche-Cuellar, “come on, we need the funds too, lots of families down here too.”
Stakeholder agencies have for years agreed major flood control infrastructure work is needed to fix the problem, who pays for it is in dispute.
“We need to get it fixed because there are a lot of families, you know, with elderly, sick, kids that live here”, Canche-Cuellar says, “and just regular families too., everybody should feel safe in their home, definitely.”
