Flooding reported near historic Black town in Tulare County. Did someone breach riverbank?

Thaddeus Miller
·3 min read

A historic region founded by African-Americans in the San Joaquin Valley escaped damage from floodwaters released when a nearby creek bank was breached Saturday, officials said.

Crews were working to stop flooding from Deer Creek near Road 88 just north of Allensworth in southwestern Tulare County, according to Cal Fire spokesperson Jazz Shaw.

Shaw said residents in the area were under a flood warning and not an evacuation order as of 2 p.m. Saturday. Where flooding could be seen, the water was roughly thigh-high, and roads leading to Allensworth from the north were blocked.

Calls to Col. Allensworth State Historic Park rang unanswered on Saturday, when the park is typically open.

But Gloria Sandoval, deputy director of public affairs for California state parks, said in a 5 p.m. email that the park was not flooded, “and the park is open to day use and camping.”

Saturday morning, SJV Water reported in a tweet that Allensworth flooded sometime after 2:30 a.m. when someone used heavy equipment to breach the banks of Deer Creek at Road 88, letting the water out, saying it spoke to Deer Creek Flood District head Jack Mitchell.

“A ‘cat and dozer’ that cut the banks of Deer (Creek) at Road 88 in (the) middle of the night have been tracked from the cut,” SJV Water tweeted. “The(y) lead toward Earlimart and police have been alerted.”

A helicopter was ferrying fill material to the breach site Saturday afternoon in an effort to stem the floodwater.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway runs roughly parallel to Highway 43 in the region tracks atop a slightly elevated railbed. Amtrak trains that use the route were still running.

The rural state park in the South Valley celebrates the success of the only California town founded, financed, built and governed by African Americans.

A new effort launched last year to restore the park, which is named after Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, the founder and a retired Buffalo Soldier in the Army.

Allensworth was included in part of a flood warning on Thursday, which asked residents to prepare in case they are ordered to leave. Alpaugh about six miles to the west was also part of the warning.

Part of the state historic park in Allensworth, which is in Tulare County.
Part of the state historic park in Allensworth, which is in Tulare County.

Lots of floodwaters from Kaweah, Tule rivers

Tulare County has been hit particularly hard by the extreme amount of rainfall seen in the state.

Sheriff Mike Boudreaux has ordered evacuations in the region, and warnings for potential evacuations have grown in the past week.

Lake Kaweah has been under close watch from the Army Corps of Engineers due to the run-off in the Kaweah River. Lake Success and Schafer Dam have also led the corps to release water.

Hundreds of residents have been evacuated from Porterville and along the Tule River.

A new storm system was forecast to bring about 2 inches of rain to the Tulare County area Monday through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.

Tulare Lake comeback?

There’s been so much water in the region that experts watching have worried about the potential to refill Tulare Lake, which was until the late 1800s the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River.

The lake made an appearance during heavy rainfall in 1997 and 1983. The 1983 version led to orchards flooded for an extended period of time, causing economic difficulties.

A swollen Deer Creek, foreground, has washed out a bridge along Road 88, at the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge seen northeast of Allensworth State Park Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
A swollen Deer Creek, foreground, has washed out a bridge along Road 88, at the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge seen northeast of Allensworth State Park Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
A restroom facility is flooded at the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge by swollen Deer Creek, foreground, Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
A restroom facility is flooded at the Pixley National Wildlife Refuge by swollen Deer Creek, foreground, Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
Alpaugh’s Giovanni Villa, left, Rodrigo Villa, center, and Octavio Villa, right, walk eastward along a flooded Avenue 56 from Highway 43, seen in the background running left to right, Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023. The three rode their bikes from Alpaugh just to see the flooding at the intersection about 3 miles north of Allensworth State Park.
Dushan “Duke” Puharich, senior safety officer with Siller Helicopters Incorporated, walks away as a helicopter prepares to lift a large bag of sand, gravel and aggregate to drop on the levee break along Deer Creek Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
Dushan “Duke” Puharich, senior safety officer with Siller Helicopters Incorporated, walks away as a helicopter prepares to lift a large bag of sand, gravel and aggregate to drop on the levee break along Deer Creek Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
An excavator drops rock and dirt to stop the breach in the levee along Deer Creek Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
An excavator drops rock and dirt to stop the breach in the levee along Deer Creek Saturday afternoon, March 18, 2023.
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