FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Fresno County emergency officials say federal disaster assistance is on the way after the recent winter storms.

FEMA will be setting up shop at the Fresno Fairgrounds, 50 trailers will be available with enough food, water, and shelter to house 20,000 people for three days.

“We’re in this for the long haul, this is not going to be a short response, we still have a lot of water up in the mountains in the form of snow and we have additional rain coming down,” said Terri Mejorado, with the Fresno County Office of Emergency Services.

Fresno County agencies had a press conference Tuesday morning and shut down some Fresno County waterways.

“The San Joaquin river and kings river effective immediately are closed for any recreational use,” said Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni.

Fresno county sheriff John Zanoni said he doesn’t want residents or rescue teams in the rapid floodwaters. 

“We do not want people out on the river in any boats or kayaks, we don’t want people fishing on the river, we want to keep people off those rivers and away from those rivers until we get through this declaration of emergency,” said Sheriff Zanoni.

Authorities say evacuation warnings are still in place until further notice saying water levels can change in the blink of an eye.

“The flows will continue as the snow melts so we need everybody to be very watchful of those, what can be a trickling stream today could be rushing in just a couple of hours,” added Mejorado.

The shelter in Sanger at the community center is still open, along with the Fresno fairgrounds for anyone that needs to house their larger animals. FEMA services will also be available at the fairgrounds when they arrive.

“There are FEMA trucks that are coming prepositioned at the Fresno fairgrounds so like I said this is a cooperative effort between all the local agencies and we just want to remind you to stay vigilant,” said Chief Dustin Hail with Fresno Fire.

Sheriff Zanoni also warns that residents that are caught out on the rivers, could be cited and it is a misdemeanor.