Mobile home park north of Santa Rosa flooded as atmospheric river deluges Sonoma County

Just past the handsome red-brick façades flanking the entrance to the Colonial Park Mobile Home Estates, a traffic sign displays the speed limit of 15. On Tuesday, it seemed a fair question to ask: 15 mph, or 15 knots?

A quarter-mile or so past the clubhouse and the office, another sign announced: FLOODED. That proved more and more of an understatement the farther west one traveled. Residents closest to the creek dividing the mobile home park from its neighbor, St. Rose Winery, were forced to navigate water that rose to their knees, and sometimes higher.

While the area’s most serious flooding and evacuations took place along the Russian River, well to the west, this mobile home park north of Santa Rosa weathered its own, less-publicized crisis.

Although one resident was furious at a motorist who’d driven past too fast, creating a wake that tore 20 feet of siding from the base of his mobile unit, the prevailing sentiments, it seemed, were black humor and resignation.

“You buy a house near a river, you’re going to get wet once in a while,” philosophized 88-year-old Lorraine Holtzen, of whose driveway on this day it could be fairly said: A river runs through it. And so it did, through the backyard, past a garden gnome whose chin barely cleared the water, into the swollen creek.

While flooding has become something of a regular occurrence, affecting roughly one third of the 190 units in the community catering to senior citizens, Holtzen points out that the water recedes quickly once the rain stops.

“I like it back here,” she declared. Asked if she’d ever complained to management, like some of her neighbors, she replied: “It’s not their fault.”

Management concurs. Complex manager Philip Etchell, whose family has owned the land for 60 years, “since it was prune orchard,” notes that these flooding episodes used to be far less frequent - “once every 10 years. But that was before these atmospheric rivers started coming through.” Another culprit, he believes: the rapid growth of Windsor. The roofs and streets and smooth surfaces of the suburbs create “instant runoff” that the creek bordering his property can’t absorb.

Has he graded or widened the creek? Don’t get Etchell started. He has spent, by his estimate, $100,000 on work and permits. He has met with six different agencies, including the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Sonoma County Water Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

After three years of meetings, he finally secured a grading permit and hauled away tons of aggregate that had been deposited in Pruitt Creek down through the decades.

That dredging has made a real difference, he believes. Had it not happened, this week’s flooding “would be worse.”

That said, he goes on, “I feel very bad for my tenants.”

Many of them, for their part, don’t share this feeling. Self-pity was in short supply - possibly because residents knew about the complex’s history of flooding when they signed their contracts. Keep calm, and high, and dry, and carry on, might as well have been their motto.

A whiteboard in the empty clubhouse advertised “Chair Yoga,” scheduled for Wednesday night. Attendance is likely to be light. The sign by the pool seemed especially appropriate, on this day:

No Lifeguard On Duty.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com.