Merced County officials holds press conference on flood preparation

MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- Merced County continues to get soaked as rain fall signifies the start to another series of storms.

The county is on alert as crews are keeping their eye on waterways and streams that are expected to rise. Aerial footage above Snelling showed what it looked like right after water overtopped a levee in the Merced River completely flooding a roadway nearby.

"They were able to work to take care of that overtopping issues and to get that road way clear and mitigate that issue," said Jeremy Rahn, OES Deputy Director.

Parts of Merced County also hit hard with recent storms just last week, roads were submerged after Mariposa Creek flooded over Le Grande.

On Friday, the county EOC said they are focusing on preparedness and they have about 30 soldiers from the National Guard in the area as a precaution.

Several from the county are continuing to watch waterways and rivers and the county said they are ready for any type of emergency brought on by these storms.

"We have four high water vehicles that have been deployed by the Army National Guard that are available in the event that we get into flooded areas, we can use their equipment," said Rahn.

The Merced County Sheriff's Department is also on high alert, with boots on the ground ready to go whenever they need to .

"If the flooding issues pop up, we're handling that in a matter of minutes," said Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke.

The EOC is activated and there are no evacuations yet, but all county departments are keeping in constant communication with folks in the area.

"If we need to do any evacuations, we're dealing with water-- so we have time," said Rahn.

County officials said they have looked at all the dams in the area and they all seem to be safe and secure.