Storm damage causing problems all over the Valley

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- After six years of drought, California needs the rain but it's also tearing up roadways, resulting in rock slides, flooding, and potholes.

"It's been a big strain on our maintenance crews. We had crews out 24/7 on the roads during the storms keeping an eye on the roadways, looking for sensitive areas, looking for roadway flooding, trying to be proactive," said Cory Burkarth, Caltrans.

From the mountains to the Valley floor, this week's intense series of storms have Central California Caltrans stretched thin.

"We have crew members from the Fresno area that we've actually had to send up to the Shaver Lake area for snow patrol. So in a situation like that where we're losing manpower in Fresno it takes away our ability to go out to do potholing, to do some of the landscape work, maybe to do some of the storm water work," said Burkarth.

Major flooding in East Central Fresno slowed lunchtime traffic to a crawl Thursday.

One motorist was left stranded in knee high water after his Volvo stalled in the intersection of Fowler and Princeton. Emergency crews helped the man get out safely -- that's before he was handed a $225 bill to tow his vehicle out.

"It does this every 10 years in Fresno."

Across the Fresno/Clovis area-- many residents were reminded of what a surge of water can do to a subdivision. A normal trip to the mailbox became a challenge for some, while others made the most of their situation.

"It's happened this bad since I've lived here maybe three times, but it drains away real fast most of the time but today it's not," said Abbott.