CONDADO TULARE, California - No, no es un lago recién formado, ni tampoco es un lago fantasma, es un lago que sucumbió a las necesidades del hombre y a la implacable sequía en la que el estado dorado estuvo sumida durante años.
Tras el azote de más de una docena de ríos atmosféricos que dejaron una gran cantidad de lluvia y nieve, gran parte de California se liberó de la sequía extrema, algo que para la mayoría del estado podría parecer una buena noticia.
Sin embargo, para algunas poblaciones del Valle de San Joaquín, esto podría resultar devastador. Algunas presas están a poco de alcanzar su máxima capacidad y ríos como el San Joaquín River y el Tuolumne River han elevado sus corrientes a niveles peligrosos.
Un poco más al sur, en el Valle Central, el Lago Tulare retoma lo que alguna vez le quitaron, inundando cientos de hectáreas de terrenos agrícolas y dejando estructuras y maquinaria bajo varios pies de agua.
Antes de que los ríos y riachuelos que lo alimentaban fueran bloqueados y desviados, el Lago Tulare era el lago de agua dulce más grande en California.
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CORCORAN, CA – APRIL 13: A farm swamped by the re-emergence of Tulare Lake, a once great body of water in the southern Central Valley, now beginning to fill again due to the recent series of major rain and snow storms in the Sierra Nevada, is viewed on April 13, 2023, near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River until the 19th century, was drained and controlled by the U.S Bureau of Reclamation, large land owners, and farmers, through an extensive system of dams, canals and levees. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 27: In an aerial view, floodwaters inundate farmland in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 27, 2023 near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with over 100 square miles of farms and other land currently flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses while water could remain in the lakebed for up to two years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 14: A bird stands by floodwaters in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 14, 2023 in Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Recent atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with thousands of acres of farmland flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CA – APRIL 13: A farm swamped by the re-emergence of Tulare Lake, a once great body of water in the southern Central Valley, now beginning to fill again due to the recent series of major rain and snow storms in the Sierra Nevada, is viewed on April 13, 2023, near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River until the 19th century, was drained and controlled by the U.S Bureau of Reclamation, large land owners, and farmers, through an extensive system of dams, canals and levees. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 14: Floodwaters cover a street in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 14, 2023 in Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Recent atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with thousands of acres of farmland flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 26: Floodwaters inundate farmland in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 26, 2023 near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with over 100 square miles of farms and other land currently flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses while water could remain in the lakebed for up to two years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 26: An aerial view of floodwaters inundating farmland in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 26, 2023 near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with over 100 square miles of farms and other land currently flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses while water could remain in the lakebed for up to two years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 26: An aerial view of floodwaters inundating farmland in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 26, 2023 near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with over 100 square miles of farms and other land currently flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses while water could remain in the lakebed for two years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 26: Floodwaters cover a road in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 26, 2023 near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with over 100 square miles of farms and other land currently flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses while water could remain in the lakebed for up to two years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
LEMOORE, CALIF. – MAR. 21, 2023. Floodwaters from a break in in levees in the vast and fertile San Joaquin Valley floods structures of a farming operation near Corcoran. Snowmelt from heavy snowfall in the mountainns that ring the valley are expected to excacerbate local flooding with the advent of spring. Tulare Lake, a body of water that was largely drained more than 100 years ago, has been filling up after a series of powerful storms that have struck California this winter. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 27: In an aerial view, floodwaters inundate farming equipment in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 27, 2023 near Corcoran, California. Tulare Lake, once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th century. Atmospheric river storm events caused significant flooding in the lakebed area with over 100 square miles of farms and other land currently flooded. The impending Sierra Nevada mountains snowmelt, with snowpack levels around historic highs, could expand the lake size to 200 square miles, threatening farming communities and billions in losses while water could remain in the lakebed for up to two years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
CORCORAN, CA – MARCH 23: In an aerial view, widespread flooding is seen as a series of atmospheric river storms melts record amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on March 23, 2023 near Corcoran, California. The region is site of the once-massive Tulare Lake, which was the largest freshwater lake in the western United States, before farming diverted its waters and the area was developed for agriculture. As levees become unable to hold back the floods, speculation is rising that the lake will reappear. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Antes de 1920, en su estado natural, el lago crecía cada invierno a medida que la lluvia y la nieve derretida de la Sierra Nevada fluían y seguían su cauce.
Las fuertes lluvias y nevadas a principios del año dejaron grandes cantidades de agua en el lecho del desaparecido lago, mismo que sigue recibiendo el preciado líquido a medida que se derrite la nieve acumulada en las montañas.
Corcoran es una de la población más afectada tras el resurgimiento del lago. Con una población de alrededor de 22,000 habitantes, Corcoran es la ciudad más grande cerca del Lago Tulare.
“La cuenca de Tulare se inunda ocasionalmente, especialmente durante años extremadamente húmedos y años con abundante nieve en las montañas de la Sierra Nevada”, indicó Safeeq Khan, ingeniero agrónomo y profesor adjunto de ingeniería civil y ambiental en la Universidad de California, Merced.
De acuerdo con Khan, esta no es la primera vez que el lecho del lago se inunda. Hasta este año, la temporada de 1969 y 1983 tenían el récord de los años más húmedos con niveles de nieve casi récord en la región.
Antes de las inundaciones del 2023, el área del lago albergaba granjas que producían algodón, tomates, productos lácteos, cártamo, pistachos, trigo y almendras.
El impacto de las tormentas y de las inundaciones ha sido tan severo que, según Western FarmPress, numerosas lecherías se han visto obligadas a trasladar el ganado fuera de la región.
Las presas Terminus y Success en los ríos Kaweah y Tule en el condado Tulare y la presa Pine Flat en el río Kings en el condado Fresno, fueron construidas a raíz de las inundaciones de 1938 y de 1955, de acuerdo con los archivos del Museo Histórico Tulare.
