DELANO, Calif. (KERO) — Three years after floodwaters hit the small community of Pond, residents are pouring concrete and bracing for another threat of heavy rain. They say they are doing it without help from local, county or state government.
“I feel like this is going to be a part two of the whole thing because nothing has changed,” one resident said.
Residents say they feel left helpless once again as they prepare for what heavy rain could mean for their community.
Pond resident and store owner Bilqees Ubadi is pouring concrete around her business to keep floodwaters out of the building, as they got in during the 2023 flood.
“We lost a lot, a lot, during the flood,” Ubadi said. “We were displaced... I didn’t get back into my home for about a year.”
Other residents told 23ABC the water in 2023 reached their knees or even their hips. Longtime resident Carmen Del Rio said she lived with her son in Wasco for more than a month while they drained and cleaned their house. Her landlord, she said, still hasn’t come to clean up the damage.
“Nadie nos ayudó. Estuvimos solos. Nadie nos dio nada,” Del Rio said. In English: Nobody helped us. We were alone. Nobody gave us anything.
Over and over, residents said no one came to help them. In 2023, several teams of volunteers, some from out of state, helped Pond residents clean up and rebuild their homes.
This time, Ubadi said, the community asked local, county and state government for help preparing for the coming rain. She said officials responded that Poso Creek, whose contaminated water overflowed and flooded Pond, is unincorporated, and no one has made an effort to clean the creek or the community.
“Everybody said it’s a dead man’s land, that no one’s in charge of it, which doesn’t make any sense,” Ubadi said.
Residents say no county official has come to Pond to explain what safety measures are in place if the water rises again.
“I feel like we’ve run out of options, we don’t know who to reach out to,” one resident said.
23ABC reached out to the office of David Couch, the District 4 county supervisor, whose jurisdiction includes Pond. The office had not responded at the time of publication.
No one knows whether floodwaters will return to Pond. Residents say they’re preparing, just in case.
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