Residents at Redwood City Mobile Home Parks Ordered to Evacuate Due to Safety Risks, Flooding

Due to possible health and safety risks caused by standing water, officials in Redwood City, California, have ordered a mandatory evacuation of two mobile home parks that flooded in Thursday's heavy rains.

Redwood City officials late Friday red-tagged homes at the Le Mar Trailer Park and RC Mobile Home Park on Bayshore Road. Firefighters the day before helped residents evacuate the area after floodwaters rose high enough to reach the living spaces of some homes.

"With sewer and anything else that was on the ground and still lying there -- so for health reasons we're going to evacuate both parks," Redwood City Fire Capt. Michael O'Leary said.

A shelter has been established at the College of San Mateo, and the city is coordinating with the Red Cross and the county Office of Emergency Services to provide services for displaced residents.

Dozens of families spent Friday in knee-deep water trying to save what they could from their homes.

"I lost all my stuff," resident Maribel Garcia said. "It's just sad to see how it's destroyed now."

A handful of neighbors spent Friday cleaning up the damage and used buckets and a pump to remove the water. But the mobile home parks still remained flooded late in the day, prompting the city to order mandatory evacuations.

Firefighters on Thursday went door-to-door, evacuating residents at the mobile home parks on East Bayshore Road. Authorities said all 50-or-so mobile homes at the park would eventually have to be evacuated as a nearby creek continued to overflow and inundate the park.

By 4 p.m., the water had risen so high, vehicles were no longer able to drive in or out of the mobile home park’s parking lot.

Residents told NBC Bay Area Thursday afternoon they were nervous about what was still to come.

“It worries me, because my daughter is here and we’ve never seen anything like this,” Josseling Paguaga said. “So hopefully nothing bad happens.”

Mobile home park manager Maria Menchaca said a few families who live at the park are staying in an office on the grounds because they have nowhere else to go. Since they couldn't afford a hotel, they would have to wait it out, hoping the water would recede.

Fire officials on Thursday also said the mobile home parks are built at a low point next to U.S. Highway 101. While there are pumps to drain help drain the area, high water levels on the Bay made that ineffective, officials said.

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