Starting Friday, hundreds of track and field athletes will be competing at Fresno State. While most of the events are inside the Save Mart Center, several shot put events are supposed to be held outside by the livestock pavilion. So, the rain could have an impact.
Building an indoor track is no easy task. Inside Fresno State's Save Mart Center, crews have been working around the clock, preparing for the fifth annual Run for the Dream track and field invitational.
Sean McElhinney said, "You know, we've had probably 20 people in this building you know at a time since the buzzer ended last night for the basketball game."
Sean McElhinney is the assistant general manager of the Save Mart Center. He says, rain will only affect the outdoor shot put event. In which case, organizers will have to make a few simple changes. "Last year, we did all the shot putting inside the facility here as well, so that is a possibility."
Thinking ahead of this oncoming storm, is something employees at Fresno City Hall are also doing. This week, workers have been clearing storm drains, and making sure pumps work, especially for underpasses prone to flooding.
Patrick Wiemiller said, "We are also looking at our staffing and making sure depending upon how the storm shapes up that we have adequate people on standby and ready to respond."
PG&E officials say, if needed, they have crews ready to respond to any storm related emergency. They've spent the past few months clearing vegetation, especially in remote areas.
Jeff Smith said, "We've been doing that to try and reduce the likelihood of outages in some locations where there's overgrown trees and things of that nature."
Homeowners can help alleviate any problems, by taking some preventative measures themselves. A few tips include, making sure your home is stocked with batteries. Freeze bottles of water to help save food in case the power goes out. And call PG&E or the city, if there's an outage or a flood.
This weekend's Run for the Dream event at Fresno State, kicks off Friday at one o'clock and goes through Saturday. Tickets range from four dollars, all the way up to ten, depending on whether you're a child, student or adult.
City's number: 621-CITY
PG&E's number: 1-800-PGE-5000
