PG&E building barriers to protect equipment from possible floods in South Valley

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Preparing for the worst, PG&E is building massive barriers in the South Valley to protect vital infrastructure that could be damaged by water during the huge snow melt in the coming months.

In Angiola, there is one of three substations that will soon have a 15-foot wall all around, protecting PG&E equipment that hundreds of customers depend on.

In Kings County, Pacific Gas, and Electric Company crews have been hard at work, preparing for the influx of water expected from the snowmelt in the High Sierra.

"It's one of those situations where you are preparing for the worst, you're hoping for the best and you're hoping that even that best case might be wrong, but now is the time to do the mitigation work," said Denny Boyles with PG&E.

PG&E substations in Angiola, Alpaugh, and Corcoran are at high risk of being impacted by several feet of water because they're located in the Tulare Lake Basin.

For perspective, officials say in the best case scenario, water could reach the top of this street sign.

On Thursday, crews started laying the foundation of the Flood mitigation barrier in Angiola.

"Steel panels that are 20 feet high that they will drive 8 feet into the ground as the backing and then in front of it they will install hesco barriers."

The barrier will be about 16 feet tall.

Boyles says it's taking a village to asses already damaged equipment and protect the ones in danger.

"As we are doing the work here, we have crews out on an airboat patrolling circuits already in the water the water and removing equipment that needs to be removed."

Boyles says, in the long run, there is no plan of removing the work underway.

Crews will be working through the night to complete the barrier in about a week.

Then, they'll move on to do this exact work at the PG&E substations in Alpaugh and Corcoran.