KERNVILLE, Calif. (KERO) — Residents of the Kern River Valley are no strangers to storms and extreme weather. Back in March, precipitation brought major flooding to areas of the valley, including Kernville, and those floods brought extensive property damage. With more rain expected on Sunday and Monday, some residents are worried, but some not so much.
Beverly Demetriff owns a campground right off the Kern River. Her campground was flooded in March, leaving her with tons of debris from the river on her land which she was tasked with removing. She says she's in 'wait and see' mode, but remains cautiously optimistic.
"We do have berms in place to pull back the river, so even if it gets up between 8 and 10 grand, we should be fine," said Demetriff.
Demetriff says she doesn't think this storm will cause the kind of major flooding the area saw in March, but if it does, she has now made new campsites on higher ground.
"I've created an area in my back compound, removed all my equipment, stored it someplace else, and made 19 campsites back there," said Demetriff. "I can convert this parking area into camping very quickly, so we have other spots we can move people to if necessary."
The Kern County Fire Department says it is increasing staffing at Kern River Valley stations over the weekend in preparation for the storm, but some valley residents say they aren't worried at all, including Ronald Koop, who says he thinks this storm will be like the average storms that come every year.
However, Kern River Conservancy Director Gary Ananian says this storm is going to be different because it's being caused by Hurricane Hilary, a rare weather phenomenon for California.
"Who knows at this point? We don't really know. This is a storm system that hasn't been in California in nearly 100 years, so it's part of 2023," said Ananian. "It's just one thing after another with the weather out here."
Even so, Ananian says he doesn't believe many places in the Kern River Valley are going to see flooding.
"The only flooding that I would probably see is more in the hillsides where there were some burn areas," said Ananian.
Some valley residents still say the prospect of heavy rain worries them anyway, including Weldon resident Nancy Baird.
"Yeah, if it has a lot of rain, we get flooded out where we live," said Baird.
Other residents, like Rocky Huston, say the possibility of high winds worries them more than rain.
"'Cause over in Maui same things happened, and that's what I'm kind of worried about," said Huston. "If you look around you can see it's really dry right now."
Ron Gillentine, who has lived in Wofford Heights for 20 years, is already affected by the preparations.
"We are still under an evacuation order, but it's not mandatory," said Gillentine.
That evacuation order is related to the landslide near his home which was evaluated by geologists earlier this year.
"They came up here, didn't know what to do, so they dropped these to k-rails down the gulley, and we have no idea what effect that would have," said Gillentine.
Gillentine says he would only be worried if they saw a lot of rain in a short amount of time.
"Part of the concern for me was 3 inches in an hour, that some things could happen, and I don't think that this far north, we are going to get that, but I am not a weatherman," said Gillentine. "I don't know."
