Local farms are working hard to keep their operations afloat as King River causes flooding

FRESNO COUNTY (KFSN) -- After nearly six years of one of the worst droughts California has seen too much water is flowing into the Kings River.

"You can't farm without it, you can't live without it so we do need the water, but this excess water is something we're going to have to deal with."

A 200 acre orange orchard used to be surrounded by water-- now around 20 to 30 acres are under water. Bedrosian took us to see the worst of it; some of the roadways are inaccessible and other roadways destroyed.

Kings River Farming has been in operation for decades. With several farms throughout the Valley they acquired this land five years ago-- never anticipating water flow like this.

"What we have to do now is pull some trees out so we can make the avenue so we can get in and out of the roads," said Bedrosian.

The Kings River splits around this property and the overflow spills into a creek bed. Bedrosian said this time last year you could walk across it.

Flooding can be beneficial to farmland, but only for a short amount of time. The trees are salvageable but have to be monitored.

"With the water and the heat we could get a root disease called phitophera. We're going to have to be very careful with that," said Bedrosian.

Bedrosian said he doesn't know what's next or how bad the total damage is. He already faces 10's of thousands of dollars in repairs and replacements.

"We have some pumps along the river that are going to have to be moved because we don't know how high the water is going to come up. We have to replant trees, fix the roadways; some of the roadways are falling in."

Despite the challenges Bedrosian said he's not discouraged.

"You know it's just one of those things, we'll come back from it."