Kings River flooding forces mandatory evacuations

A surging Sierra Nevada snowmelt caused the Kings River to overflow near the Central Valley town of Kingsburg on Friday night, forcing mandatory evacuations.

Tulare County sheriff’s deputies and firefighters went door to door starting just before midnight to order residents out of about 90 homes near the Kings River Golf and Country Club, said Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Teresa Douglass.

Release of water from Pine Flat Dam caused the river to breach Friday afternoon. The flooding caused damage to seven homes and 18 recreational vehicles, Douglass said.

The Sheriff’s Department received a call for assistance from the golf course between 4 and 5 p.m., Douglass said. Sandbags were laid to protect structures. Portions of the course were inundated up to 10 feet.

Residents were evacuated from the unincorporated area surrounding the golf course just north of State Highway 99 about halfway between Tulare and Fresno. Voluntary evacuations were advised in a wider area to the north and south of the golf course.

The Kings River, which runs through Fresno and Tulare counties, has been closed to all recreational use since March 21 due to potentially dangerous conditions.

The National Weather Service posted a warning early Saturday saying, “Dangerously high water flows along the Kings River will continue to threaten communities downstream of Pine Flat Dam. Locations impacted include, but are not limited to: Minkler, Reedley, Kingsburg, and Grangeville.”

The notice said high releases were expected to continue through the weekend “as Pine Flat Lake is near its storage capacity due to ongoing snowmelt.”

Tyler Stalker, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the water level in the dam has been rising for several days as warm weather increased snowmelt. The level is nearing the dam’s authorized maximum.

“We estimate it will hit 100% tomorrow morning,” Stalker said. At that point, there would still be some reserve capacity, he said, adding, “We’re not really concerned.”

To prevent exceeding the limit, though, releases from the dam were increased over the past two weeks. The rate reached 14,900 cubic feet per second on Thursday, exceeding the capacity of the river in the flatlands.

The flow was reduced to 14,200 cubic feet per second Saturday, Stalker said, partly to prevent further downstream flooding but also because flow into the dam is expected to subside.

“At this point forecasts are indicating snowmelt is decreasing,” Stalker said. “We expect that today and tomorrow.”

Douglass said it would take hours before the reductions affected the flow in the Kingsburg area, about 25 miles to the southwest.

KFSN-TV in Fresno reported Thursday that water is also stressing levees downstream. Near Lemoore, workers with the Kings River Conservation District rushed to fix a 40-foot levee break that allowed water to gush into about four acres of alfalfa fields.

Douglass said sandbags were being placed by hand and by helicopter to protect the levee system.

doug.smith@latimes.com

@LATDoug

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UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional details, including a warning from the National Weather Service.

1:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with new information from National Weather Service.

This article was originally posted at 12:30 p.m.