Workers lined the San Francisquito Creek in East Palo Alto with thousands of sandbags Wednesday in an effort to strengthen a levee that failed to prevent flooding during heavy rains over the holidays.

East Palo Alto city officials called on the California Conservation Corps to help shore up the levee this week, CCC spokeswoman Susanne Levitsky said.

Levitsky said 20 workers filled about 6,000 sandbags on Tuesday, which they are placing along the levee.

"They're trying to help the city elevate and bolster this part of the levee that overtopped," she said. "We'll be using those sandbags to make it a little bit higher and a bit more secure."

She said the sandbags should keep the levee secure through the winter.

The creek overflowed on Dec. 23, causing severe flooding on West Bayshore Road near U.S. Highway 101 in East Palo Alto near the Palo Alto border.

That day, dozens of people reported to an evacuation center at the East Palo Alto YMCA while the flooding was occurring, returning home late the same night, according the American Red Cross.

The San Francisquito Creek runs through residential and commercial areas of East Palo Alto, as well as along the borders of Palo Alto and Menlo Park, and has been the source of severe floods over the past several decades, according to East Palo Alto city officials.

The last major flood in East Palo Alto caused by the overflowing creek occurred in 1998, according to the city.