Floodwaters from an overflowing Lake Success reached the Tule River next to Joseph Goni’s Tulare family dairy on March 15, in the middle of the night, much faster than he had expected…. Goni choked up recently as he and Roberto Martinez, a 30-year employee, recounted how  floodwaters nearly washed away the dairy three generations of his family had built. … Thousands of San Joaquin Valley farmers, workers and residents are coping with acres of floodwaters and muck, tallying the damage. One industry official estimated $20 billion in losses for dairy, California’s number one agricultural industry, generating $7 billion in revenue statewide…. After months of atmospheric rivers, storms and record floods, the long-dry Tulare Lake is rising again from the San Joaquin Valley floor. It will be fed, experts said, by an historic snowpack melting in the Sierra Nevada. 

Related articles: 

• CNN: Thousands of acres are underwater in California, and the flood could triple in size this summer
• Mercury News: Salinas Valley growers say much of flood damage due to choked river
• NBC News: Satellite images show the re-emergence of Tulare Lake
• The Conversation: Epic snow from all those atmospheric rivers in the West is starting to melt, and the flood danger is rising
• Fox 26 – Fresno: Did California get too much water this year? 
• KVPR – Fresno: Will the biggest snowpack since 1895 flood Fresno this spring? Not likely.
• Western Farm Press: Big water year doesn’t mean more planted acres