ACAMPO, Calif. — Residents in the small San Joaquin County community of Acampo are recovering from flooding not seen in the area for decades.
"I was asleep, and I woke up and in my house was water," said Acampo resident Mary Harmon.
Clutching her three-month-old baby Jessie, Harmon could only stare at flood waters that engulfed her home in the middle of the night.
"I got off my bed and I stepped in water, and I looked around and I said, 'The house is flooding,'" said Harmon.
Harmon's roommate, Samantha Williams, showed off a portion of the inside of the home where water crept in. The front room and carpet were soaked.
Sandbags positioned below doorways were no match for the historic deluge.
"It's cleansing the earth. We just need to get it out of the house. I don't mind it out here, just not in the house," added Williams, lightheartedly.
Longtime Acampo residents say it floods here, but they've never seen it flood here this bad. Dozens of homes have been flooded in some way or another in at least a three-block area.
Flood waters entered Connie Bowles home around 5 a.m.
"I heard the dogs. Anyhow, I know why the dogs were barking, because of the rain, the flood," said Bowles.
Nearly everywhere you turn, home after home is flooded. The corner store and the elementary school are also encircled by water.
Ronnie Suko's home was spared by the flood waters, but just barely. Three days earlier, a tree crashed onto his home and totaled his wife's car.
"We've been through this before, but not this bad. I just feel for everybody whose house got flooded," said Suko, standing in galoshes in the middle of East Cooper Road.
Ironically three years ago, the San Joaquin County Public Works Department installed a nearly $2.5 million drainage system.
Complete with an underground storage sump pump facility, it was created to protect the neighborhood from floods. But, upset homeowners like Pam Walker said it didn't work this time.
"They need somebody out here in charge to take control of this," said Walker, with tears welling up in her eyes.
Walker cares for her husband who is handicapped.
With no outside help in the early morning, it was neighbor helping neighbor with an army of generators to pump away water.
For now, this catastrophe of historic proportions will mean a major cleanup for residents here in the weeks and months ahead.
We put in a call to the San Joaquin County Public Works Department to respond to residents complaints, however the call has not yet been returned.
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