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Disaster Relief in Action Two Years Later: Red Cross Response to Pajaro’s Devastating Atmospheric Rivers

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From December 2022 through March 2023, devastating storms and flooding drenched California over several months, destroying homes and businesses. This intense precipitation—the result of atmospheric rivers—is extremely rare in California, so areas that normally wouldn’t flood, like the community of Pajaro in Monterey County, home to migrant farmworkers, and large portions of Tulare and Kern counties, were completely inundated. These damaging atmospheric rivers spurred landslides and tore apart homes, inflicting financial losses and destroying irreplaceable, precious memories. While the relentless rain affected much of the state, this disaster took a severe and disproportionate toll on the most vulnerable.

On March 9, 2023, Eddie Rocha of Watsonville was shocked to see flood waters creeping into his kitchen. His home quickly became soaked with flood waters leaving him no choice but evacuate.
“This is everything,” Simon Mata says, showing American Red Cross volunteer Barbara Wood the huge pile of muddy garbage in front of his home in Pajaro, where everything that had furnished his home awaits pickup.
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