Pajaro residents cleared to return to flood-ravaged Monterey County farm town
Doris Padilla, 65, stood almost catatonic Thursday outside her mud-covered house on Florence Street in Pajaro, unable to begin the grueling work of rebuilding. Unlike the neighbors busying themselves shoveling contaminated mud and debris and moving waterlogged furniture and carpets out of their homes, Padilla just couldn’t move. She waited outside her house for her son to come home from work and start cleaning up. … Monterey County authorities Thursday morning lifted evacuation orders for the flood-ravaged farm town, allowing residents to return to their homes in most cases for the first time since they were forced to flee in the middle of the night March 11 after a levee failed upriver and inundated their community.
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