TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Preparations are underway for more and more snow melt off the Sierra this spring and summer. 

“This is all about timing. Are we gonna get a warm atmospheric river on top of a prime snowpack? Can we create enough space in our reservoirs to take some of that incoming melt and meter it downstream?” said Drew Coe, a hydrologist with Cal Fire. 

As of now, the main concerns as we head into warmer weather includes the area of the Kings River by Kingsburg, which is fed from Pine Flat, as well as waterways like the St. John’s River, which comes off a nearly full Lake Kaweah. 

“The Kaweah also has a historic level of snowpack up there. The Kaweah actually drains next to our areas of the highest population density. That would include the community of Visalia,” said Coe. 

The county has crews ready for whatever comes next. They’re have worked to repair the rest of the roughly 50 levee breaks, as crews have already placed over 50,000 sandbags. 

Much of that work continued around the small towns of Alpaugh and Allensworth Monday, where evacuation orders were lifted late last week. 

“We’re working on getting that Avenue 56 open so we can have access in and outside of the community. The sheriff has done a tremendous job in supplying supplies, water and food to those communities to keep them sustained in the meantime,” said Tulare County Fire Chief Charlie Norman. 

The county is asking residents who have faced damages to their home or property, to fill out their property damage form.