Residents begin cleaning efforts ahead of FEMA's arrival in Merced County

MERCED COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- "They lost everything, more than 40 years of work, memories" Maria Castaneda says.

Planada residents, still dealing with the aftermath of the heavy rain Described what what they were faced with on Sunday

"Everything's wet everything's damaged everything is dirty with bacteria with the water it's horrible," Castaneda says.

Castaneda is helping her in-laws clean up their home and explained that waiting for help to arrive was not an option.

"We're doing it, we're doing this on our own," Castaneda says. "We're not waiting for no one to come in here and tell us ok, you know what this is a total loss because we know, we know it's a total loss, everything's wet."

With help from FEMA expected to arrive in the coming days, Industrial facilities in Merced stay flooded and have been left without power, which is need to resume operations.

"Some of its perishable and this year has been rough already because of the weather things have been slow, the economy," Business owner Ruben Malhi says.

Business owners say so far customers have been understanding but they don't know how long they will hold on to that patience.

"They need their product, they can't wait around for us so we have to get going," Malhi says. "Otherwise it's easy to lose a customer, it's really hard to gain one."