Uneasy watch at rivers
The San Lorenzo River and Soquel Creek are being watched closely and residents and emergency services are preparing for flood conditions. Rescuers evacuated a man with minor injuries from a falling tree and woman with a broken leg, injured by a tree falling onto her house from Eureka Canyon near Corralitos on Monday night. The Pajaro River is rising and 6 inches below flood levels in some areas, though Watsonville is not at risk. While the San Lorenzo is receding, the upper River was four feet over the top of the Boulder Creek dam, resulting in evacuation preparations for Felton Grove, Paradise Park, and Gold Gulch. Soquel Creek rose rapidly, and two cranes were used to pull logs from Bargetto Bridge to avoid flooding of downtown Soquel, as occurred in 1982. As the river rose, measurable by the height numbers on the bridge, residents of Soquel mobile home park received a mandatory evacuation order. The 1982 flood events are often referenced, and the 1986 events are seen as less severe. Boulder Creek is isolated by a slide on Highway 9 at Irwin Way and persistent dangerous road conditions. In the Boulder Creek area, three homes are reported destroyed and 12 are damaged. The Boulder Brook evacuation remains in place and a woman who is thought to have been at home when a 150-foot-wide mudslide hit her cabin on Friday, is still missing and presumed dead. Residents in flood areas are familiar with flood evacuation planning, after narrow escapes from the floods in 1982. On Monday night, Soquel was watching the river closely. River channel clearance by the California Conservation Corps, and work on a levee behind Izant's Harware, and crucially, a stop to the rain, would provide relief for the time-being.
Creator:
Bergstom, Mark
Source:
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Date: 1986-02-18
Type:
NEWS; DOCUMENT
Coverage:
1980s
Identifier: CF-33482
Collection
Citation
Bergstom, Mark. “Uneasy watch at rivers.” Santa Cruz Sentinel. 1986-02-18. SCPL Local History. https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/109385. Accessed 26 July 2026.
