Flood waters along Kings River leave behind breeding grounds for mosquitoes

TULARE COUNTY (KFSN) -- Michelle Fraser is hard at work erasing the damage floodwaters created in the River Bend RV Park. A bridge connecting two sections of the park is visible again for the first time in a week and she's making sure the dirt road through the park takes shape again.

"Oh my god, it got soaking wet and then with the sheriff's coming back and forth making sure everything was okay, they dug in more and more and more. So we gotta fix that up so we can bring the trailers back when it comes time for reopening."

Fresno County Sheriff's deputies are still enforcing a mandatory evacuation in the back half of River Bend, but emergency managers could call it off soon.

"I see there's been a great improvement. We all stuck together and made it through it," said Fraser.

But as the river recedes, a new problem pops up in fresh puddles that could stay here for weeks.

In a summer where scientists have already found mosquitoes with west Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis in Fresno County, the flooding created new breeding grounds. Mosquito abatement teams found immature mosquitoes in standing water around Avocado Lake and they sprayed the area Tuesday.

"As the water in these areas warms up a bit we're going to see mosquito larvae and so that's why it's important for us to get out there as soon as we can," said Steve Mulligan, Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District.

Firefighters shut down Avenue 400 here on Sunday so they could do their work, but they tell me it could reopen as soon as Wednesday.