Fresno County sends thousands of sandbags to San Joaquin riverbank

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- A flooding San Joaquin River has caused concerns for the Fresno County town of Firebaugh and neighboring communities.

Recent rainfall brought so much water to Central California, officials are working to make sure there is somewhere for it to go.

"We're going to be pushing these channels to their absolute maximum capacity for weeks. You know, the San Joaquin River can hold 8,000 cubic feet per second. And in order to get enough water out of dam, they're going to start pushing that 30,000 feet per second so everything has to hold for that," said Lt. Brandon Pursell of the Fresno County Sheriff's Office.

Fresno County began a large sandbagging operation to try to stop the overflowing river from flooding Firebaugh.

Cal Fire Fresno County along with the California Guard and the California Conservation Core Crew spent Tuesday filling sandbags which were then stacked several feet high along the San Joaquin.

Thousands of sandbags were stacked two-three feet high and a couple feet deep along hundreds of feet lining the river.

As more water is expected to be pushed into the river this week, Firebaugh remains under an evacuation warning as officials remain on flood watch.

With each bag stacked, crews hope the wall of sand will be enough to bolster the riverbank.

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