Santa Maria work crews reporting few impacts from heavy overnight rainfall
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Despite receiving a heavy dousing of rain during the overnight hours, the Santa Maria Public Works Department is reporting minimal impacts caused by the storm.
"So far, so good," said Julian Ruiz, Santa Maria Public Works Supervisor. "We are working as we are prepared. We do have plenty of equipment, plenty of signs out there. We do have plenty of crews on call and on standby. We should be fine."
Ruiz indicated the only major issue to happen due to the rain was a road closure at Black Road at the intersection of Highway 166, and a few miles south at the intersection of Stowell Road.
"We got a call around 9:45 last night to go to Black Road," said Ruiz. "It was raining pretty hard at the time. When we got out there there was water across the road. We closed down the street to make it safe for the motorists and everybody."
The closures at the two locations only lasted a short while and the roadway was re-opened to traffic a few hours later.
"We did check other locations that are known to be flooded with the storms, but nothing else needed attention," said Ruiz.
As the sun rose Thursday morning, Public Work crews started patrols around the city checking for any other issues that might have arose from the rainfall and heavy winds.
"Today, we sent crews out," said Ruiz. "There's actually crews out there right now (mid-Thursday morning). We're making sure debris, street limbs, branches, making sure we get water, whatever water is left on the road off the road basically. Of course, they're also looking for potholes and any hazards that could be out there."
With more rain in the forecast over the next few days, Santa Maria Public Works Department crews will remain prepared and ready to respond should anything need their attention.
"Usually when we see that there's a storm coming, we prep the day before and the day of," said Omar Hernandez-Nunez (Santa Maria Public Works maintenance worker. "We like to get everything ready with the trucks. We get them filled up. We have proper signage out there and we have people ready to be on call if needed for assistance."
