It has been a record-breaking amount of water for Porterville that has been running through our rivers. These past few weeks, we have seen mass amounts of rain pouring into our rivers and flooding our streets. The week of spring break, the city issued temporary evacuations for specific parts of Porterville. They even closed roads leading up to Springville and the Reservation due to collapsed or flooded roads. The city has warned citizens to avoid unnecessarily traveling, especially near river banks, bridges, or backroads, as they can all lead to serious danger. People have begun to surround their houses with sandbags to reduce the risk of flooding.

We can all agree that the rain has affected us in some sort of way. Whether you play spring sports and practices or games are being canceled. Or your normal route to work has changed due to detours avoiding flooded areas. Some of our students are being majorly affected by not being able to leave their houses to come to school. Parents have requested independent study due to being unable to send their kids to school. Some areas have gotten so flooded that people are instructed to evacuate their homes. Our school has done its best to accommodate our students during this hard time. Porterville High is issuing Chromebooks to those who have decided to enroll in independent study and cannot commute to school.

Porterville as a town has done a good job ensuring the safety of our citizens by evacuating areas that are being seriously affected by the mass flooding and strong currents of the river. Local donations have been made to those in need, such as food, clothes, and daily essentials are examples of contributed items towards those who have been affected.