LOS ANGELES — Significant federal relief is finally on the way for displaced and devastated Pajaro residents, officials said, following weeks of pleas from locals and leaders of the unincorporated Monterey County community since the region was inundated during strong winter storms that slammed California.
The major disaster declaration signed late Monday by President Joe Biden for Monterey and surrounding counties will bring long-awaited aid and other resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to flooded and storm-battered communities across California.
Roughly 3,000 residents of Pajaro, many of them migrant farmworkers who speak Spanish or Indigenous languages, were displaced or trapped in their homes after a levee breached on the Pajaro River last month. Within hours of the levee failure, streets, homes and businesses were under several feet of water.
