Monterey County Public Works ready for next storms

When a storm hits Monterey County dozens of county employees are working around the clock in the operations center.

“It’s a hub where information comes in, and then ultimately dispatched out to the crews,” said Monterey County Maintenance Manager Shawn Atkins.

With 12-hundred and 34 miles of road and 173 bridges the County is broken up into 16 storm patrol routes.

“The reason we do this is to better serve the public, and give them a more rapid response,” said Atkins.

The drought has caused a record amount of trees and limbs to fall on the roadways, the department is equipped to handle that as well.

“What we do is we cut the tree up and usually take it to a wide spot in the road, somewhere safe, for people that would like to gather firewood,” said Atkins.

The County has rows of supplies and stockpiles of sandbags. The county said they’re prepared for the next round of storms.

“We filled over 60-thousand sand bags, we’ve delivered already over 30-thousand so far this winter and have more available,” said Atkin.