Residents of Haven Acres – the tight-knit community located on the west side of the levee along the banks of the San Joaquin River just north of Lathrop – can now return home.

Last week the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office announced that the mandatory evacuation order that was issued for the community had been downgraded to an evacuation warning – meaning that residents can return back to their homes under the condition that they stay alert to the changing conditions of the adjacent river.

While the river swelled to levels not seen in a number of years after a series of atmospheric rivers and bomb cyclones inundated California with water this winter, the decline in the river level that came as a result of the recently dry conditions does not mean that residents living within floodplains are out of the woods just yet.

With a near-record snowpack currently sitting up in the Sierra and warmer weather expected, water managers are preparing for a tenuous period where they work to ensure is enough storage for all of the water that will flow into reservoirs – meaning that discharges from dams could be higher than normal and result in abnormally high river levels for the foreseeable future.

The forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls for the water level at the Mossdale Bridge to hover at around 18.5 and trending down for the next week – putting it more than a foot below the “flood monitor” stage.

Organizations that monitor the San Joaquin River were caught off guard earlier this year when California Governor Gavin Newsom cut $40 million for floodplain restoration that had been included in the previous year’s budget.

The decision to cut the funding drew fire  from both sides of the political aisle – noting that by removing the funding and cutting the number of restoration projects underway, the state was actually increasing the likelihood of the kind of flooding that officials have been trying to prevent.

Restoring floodplains typically includes setting levees back to create more space for water to flow or removing levees to allow waters to flow unimpeded onto unoccupied farmland to alleviate stress on other points along the river’s route. 

To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.