CLEARLAKE ? Store Manager Steve Bricker and his yard crew at Mendo Mill came to the rescue of a neighbor on Wednesday. Amid massive downpours and chilling winds, Bricker and his crew worked to prevent the flooding of a disabled woman”s house on Lelabelle Boulevard in Clearlake.
“I couldn”t do anything. I was about to float down the street. I was so scared,” Katie Stafford, 68, said. “My whole yard was under water and it was about to come into my house. It was very scary looking.”
Stafford said she felt helpless after exhausting efforts to gain assistance from area government agencies without success. She then turned to Bricker.
“The next thing you know, there were eight men in the yard digging ditches and diverting the water from my yard and away from my house,” Stafford said. “These boys saved my house yesterday.”
Bricker said he and his crew, along with Stafford”s good friend and former neighbor Steve Cova, dug two strategically-placed ditches to divert the water from Stafford”s porch. “It was kind of cool. You could see the water immediately begin to flow back where it was supposed to be, back into the drainage ditch,” Bricker said. “Another 20 minutes and it would have been in her house.”
Bricker said he and his crew got the job done in about 20 minutes and that they were glad to help. “We are always willing to help out in the community,” he said. “There was no way this poor lady could have done it herself.”
Bricker said Mendo Mill is now stocked with sandbags and free sand to fill them with. He said the bags themselves are available for purchase but there will be no charge for the sand.
Other sandbag locations include Rainbow Agricultural Services, 1975 Argonaut Road, Lakeport, 279-0550; Piedmont Lumber, 2465 South Main Street, Lakeport, 263-8400; Kelseyville Lumber and Supply Co., 3895 Main Street, Kelseyville, 279-4297; and Four Corners Builders Supply, 14975 Olympic Drive, Clearlake, 994-6277.
Other businesses that have sand on hand include R.B. Peters, 78 Soda Bay Road, Lakeport, 263-3678; Piedmont Lumber; Kelseyville Lumber; Pivniska Trucking Inc., 85 West Highway 20, Upper Lake, 275-3203; Clear Lake Lava, 14572 East Highway 20, Clearlake Oaks, 998-1115; and Layne Paving and Trucking, 3700 Old Highway 53, Clearlake, 994-6324.
Clearlake Public Works Superintendent Doug Herren said that the city donated 1,000 sandbags to Layne Paving earlier this week.
Severe weather patterns are expected to continue throughout the next two to three weeks. Weather conditions can be checked at www.weather.gov/sacramento.
Contact South County reporter Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
