In Pajaro, children and teens grapple with displacement after flooding
WATSONVILLE, Calif. — The school buses arrived in quick succession, looping past the entrance of the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds and a parking lot packed with cars before stopping near Harvest Building, a low-slung yellow structure usually used for fundraisers.
Araceli Telles stood waiting near the gate for her daughters to arrive at the sprawling complex. The family had recently landed in an emergency shelter here, less than a week after fleeing their home in Pajaro in the morning darkness when a levee broke and unleashed a flood.
Her daughters had been scared the first few days after the March 10 deluge, she said, unsure and unsettled by the abrupt displacement and constant moves. They spent one night in a hotel, another sleeping in a friend's kitchen. But with buses at the shelter serving their schools, her children were, at last, back to a semi-normal routine.
Still, she worried about their health. Telles had received a call from her 7-year-old's teacher saying Mitzy wasn't her usual cheery self.
"Even though people say children
