TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Flood waters from the Tule River overflow in Tulare County reached several dairy farms in the area leaving farmers concerned for their livestock.

“It’s gotten progressively worse with the storm heart, and the overflow out of Lake Success,” said Johnny Dykstra of Dykstra Dairy Farms in Tulare.

“If the water levels get too high and start becoming an issue, flooding out the areas where the cows are or the feed we may have to look at doing some sort of evacuation.”

Dykstra said just one week ago the entire area near their dairy was dry, but over the course of five days, they’ve had 6.5 inches of water covering 1000 acres of their land.

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said they’ve been staying in close contact with the local farmers.

“This land is completely flooded and so my heart goes out to a lot of our farmers, our growers, and our dairymen,” said Boudreaux. “They’re having to protect their cattle move their cattle move the dairy cows and move livestock.”

Dykstra said all they can do now is continue to prepare and hope for the best but with more rain on the way, it’s been hard for them to stay positive.

“Well right now, everyone is pretty worried about us and the neighbors about the water levels rising and trying to keep our dairy facilities free of water,” he said.

Dykstra said they’ve spoken to other farmers in the area, many said they’ve not seen flood waters like these since the late 1960s.