If the Napa River and its creeks threaten to overflow this winter, Tanesha Williams, a Vallejo mother with two young daughters, is ready to do her part.

“I need a stomper,” yelled Williams, apparently a natural-born leader. A little later, she shouted, “Pass it to Lorenzo. Go, go, go, go.”

Williams was one of 30 young people based at the California Conservation Corps’ Napa office who did high intensity sandbag drills for two hours Tuesday afternoon on the grounds of Napa State Hospital.

Corps members pretended that a slope along a soccer field was a Sacramento Delta levee ready to break. They mobbed the slope, staked it with plastic and deployed sandbags for extra strength.

Williams was so enthusiastic in trying to turn her ragtag team into a well-oiled machine that she got special praise from Anthony Burger, a crew superintendent.

“Tanesha, you get the communications award. Yours is the only voice I hear,” Burger said.

The outdoor drill followed a morning of classroom instruction. “I’ve taken a lot of notes,” Williams said. “I’m ready to go. I was a lifeguard for two years. I’m not afraid of water.”

CCC members have responded to scores of floods, filling more than 3 million sandbags since the organization was launched 30 years ago by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. At Tuesday’s drill, they filled 200 to 300 more.

Local CCC crews are trying to position themselves for action in Napa County this winter, said Nathan Ortiz, a site supervisor new to Napa. He has begun talking with local Office of Emergency Services staff about how his troops can be deployed in a flood emergency.

The CCC is a training program for adults ages 18 to 25 who earn minimum wage while acquiring the skills and experiences to help them decide the next step in their lives.

“We go to floods. We go to fires. We go to earthquakes. We do erosion control. We construct trails. You name it, we do it,” Burger said.

Thomas Whitlatch, a 19-year-old Napan, said he helped clear streams Upvalley last summer to improve flood preparedness.

To his disappointment, the CCC wasn’t used in last winter’s New Year’s Eve flood. “Last year we were expecting to be called out for the Napa flood, but we never were,” Whitlatch said.

When the call comes, the crews will be ready, Burger said. Tuesday’s drill should bring everyone up to speed on a “total flood-fighting method,” he said.

Williams said she hoped to earn her high school diploma during her year with the CCC. Every new skill, even sandbagging, can help her with her future life, she said.

“You learn something new that takes you farther and farther,” she said.