KERNVILLE, Calif. (KERO) — Cleanup and recovery efforts continue in Kern's mountain communities, hit hard by recent storms. Riverside Park in Kernvile, which has been seen as a way to monitor the flood conditions, is closed off now, with makeshift signs and caution tape surrounding it.
The focus of the recovery effort seems to be around getting back to business as usual. At Kern River's Edge Campground, owners John and Rhonda Stallone say the camp looked more like the river than the river's edge during the storm on March 10.
"There is our lofty oak," said campground owner John Stallone in a video he took of the damage. "It is floaty oak now."
The place where people once camped and played volleyball was completely underwater and being pummeled by flood-driven current.
"It just ripped and ripped and ripped material downstream," said Stallone.
That image was hard for Stallone to watch, but says he couldn't get himself to leave the campgrounds. He still remembers writing the idea for this place on a napkin more than 20 years ago. John's wife, Rhonda, points out damage around the campground.
"You can see these 6 campsites were affected; three sites over there and three sites over here," said Rhonda, adding that the Stallones tried to move things out of the way beforehand to prepare, but it wasn't enough.
Rhonda Stallone says one of the campground's employees who lives on-site full time had to find another place to stay due to the storm as well, but that they are forging on with help and support from community members who helped them clean out over the weekend.
"It just gives me chills just thinking about it," said Rhonda. "We had so much support. We had people chain-sawing and cleaning and clearing."
Stallone says there is still a lot of work left to do, but they will be having more clean up parties with the community, and are grateful for the help.
The Stallones are also reorganizing the camp to be better prepared now that they know how the river can potentially move.
They hope to have the campground open again by April 1st.
Meanwhile in Wofford Heights, many of the neighbors we spoke to said they are coming back after evacuating for 1 or 2 days. As of 5:00 pm Monday, the area is no longer under an evacuation order, and residents say they're more concerned about possible looting than possible mudslides.
Others, like Mike Dorner, are trying to help the best they can.
"Gonna shovel the mud out of the street because when it rains and it gets all muddy tonight, the cars slip all over the place," said Dorner.
In both Kernville and Wofford Heights, many residents, including Kyla Poehlmann, expressed wanting to see a focused recovery effort on Riverside Park.
"Just coming down and assessing the damage and hoping they can work on it sometime soon," said Poehlmann. "It is a big melting pot for our community, especially for young kids. There isn't other places to go."
Area residents mentioned many county and state agencies coming to assess the damage in the past couple of days, including ground movement analysis professionals from the US Geological Survey to determine landslide risk.
