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In early January, the small Central Valley community of Planada was one of the first towns engulfed by a wave of back-to-back storms that hit California this winter. Amid relentless rains, a creek that runs past the town broke through an ageing levee. Flood waters swamped the town and surrounding agricultural fields.
About half the homes were damaged, and many remain in various states of disrepair. Water lines mar neatly painted facades. Piles of salvageable furniture and boxes full of water-logged memories have been left to air out in back yards.
Months later, residents are still digging themselves out. And local leaders are pleading for more help, without which the unincorporated, rural community of 4,000 might never fully recover.
Without documentation, Rufino and his wife, Esmeralda, have been unable to get any help from the government. The middle-aged couple with a son in college make a living tending to the nearby sweet potato fields, vineyards, and almond and cherry orchards. This winter, they lost about $9,600 (£7,600) in wages between them, amid a series of storms in January and February. Thousands of acres of farmland were inundated, and there was virtually no work for weeks.
The couple’s part-time business selling ice-cream was wrecked as well. The floods destroyed five industrial freezers and all the inventory they contained, costing the couple about $23,000 (£18,200).
“We are totally ignored by the government, by the county,” said Rufino. “They are sacrificing us.” Like many of his neighbours, he said he didn’t get any evacuation warning until he was ankle-deep in water.
At a tense town hall in February, in front of officials from the local county, disaster management agencies and Fema, he asked, rhetorically: “Did the disaster come only for those with social security numbers?”
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