Rain causes flooding and traffic hazards across the Central Valley

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Pouring rain, spun-out vehicles, and flooding could be seen across the Central Valley Wednesday night as the latest storm rolled in.

"Today has been an extremely high call volume, a lot of solo vehicle spin-outs," said CHP Officer Anthony Daulton.

"With the rain, there tend to be pools of water that may have of otherwise not been there. People are so used to driving in the summer and fall without all the moisture. They may be keeping up with their normal speeds but even the speed limit is a little bit too fast for the weather conditions."

One pool of water people continued to drive through in Northwest Fresno is at West and Bullard.

At the intersection and in the parking lot of Max's Bistro and Bar, you can see feet of water and city crews working to clear the roadways.

"I've never seen anything like this in my over 40 years in this community," said Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi.

Karbassi says some cars got stuck in the flooding and also trying to stop vehicles from driving through the area.

He says in addition to getting the roadway clear, he is now focused on figuring out how to stop this from happening again.

"My guess is the culprit are those trees right next to me, those pine needles. They really stick together. When they get into a drain, it becomes like a big hairball that you have to extract, and in order to avoid that, maybe we just trim the trees or change the trees altogether," said Karbassi.

As the holiday season continues, Officer Daulton says to make sure your vehicle is prepared to travel throughout the Valley.

"Always check the road conditions, always check the weather conditions on the route you are planning to take and plan accordingly," said Officer Daulton.

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