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(CNN) Massive flooding, washing away roads and pushing northern and central California residents from their homes, is expected to continue through Saturday and weekend, with more rain expected.
But Saturday isn’t expected to bring a wall of torrential rain that hit communities on Friday, when bridges collapsed, roads were cut, and thousands of power outages occurred.
At least two people were killed in the storm, officials said.
“Overall environmental factors are less impressive than recent strong atmospheric river events, but nevertheless prolonged light to occasional moderate rainfall is expected in parts of central to northern California.” said the Weather Forecast Center on Saturday.
The impact of this week’s storms has been exacerbated after heavy rainfall hit the same areas that were buried by the heavy snowfall of the past two weeks. Melting snowpacks will play a role in prolonging flooding over the next few days, forecasters said.
About 15 million people were placed under flood surveillance, including parts of northwestern Nevada, from Redding in the north to San Bernardino, California in the south. Flood warnings were still in effect for parts of northern and central California until early Saturday morning.
A pickup truck crosses a bridge over a flooded Tour River on March 10 near Springville, California.
Parts of the northern California coast and the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada also show a slight risk of 2 out of 4 levels of excess rainfall. Widespread rainfall of 1 to 3 inches is expected Saturday.
The evacuation order has been expanded in Teviston County to include parts of Cutler and Exeter as river flow increased, not just the community of Teviston, according to the county sheriff’s office on Friday night. Residents were urged to avoid waterways and avoid unnecessary travel.
The Pajarro River breaks its levee on Saturday, March 11, 2023 in Monterey County, California.
The sheriff’s office said, “With the amount of water added to Lake Success from rain and runoff, the water level is projected to reach the spillway.
About 700 residents of Soquel were trapped after Friday’s heavy rains hit Santa Cruz County, causing severe flooding due to broken pipes and collapsing one road connecting the community to the rest of the area. . Works director. Wiesner said residents will remain quarantined until the new crossing is built, which could take several days.
Resident Molly Watson told CNN, “This is the only way into town. ‘We are an island now.'”
Residents of Soquel were trapped after a major road collapsed due to severe flooding.
A photo Watson shared with CNN captures a chaotic scene where much of the road has been washed away by floodwaters and the cracked pavement appears to be submerged in rapid water. Paramedics stand on one side of the road and residents watch on the other.
“I have lived here all my life and have never seen a creek actually run through the road,” Soquel resident Nick Mareta told CNN affiliate KGO, adding that the powerful Tornadoes were likened to torrential rains.
“Throughout the night the water was very saturated and the cottonwood in particular was very weak and we heard rolling noises all night long,” Mareta said.
Soquel is one of the hardest-hit areas in Santa Cruz County, with over 6.5 inches of rain in certain areas and about 2 inches of widespread precipitation, according to a report from the San Francisco National Weather Service. bottom.
As of Saturday morning, more than 41,000 homes and businesses across the state were without power, about 30,000 of them in coastal Monterey County, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us.
Flooding forced local emergency workers to rescue more than 90 people in Monterey County, Sheriff Tina Nieto said at a news briefing Saturday afternoon.
Workers tried to prevent a levee catastrophe on Friday night but were “overwhelmed by the current coming down that basin,” said Liu Bauman, interim manager of the county’s water agency. rice field.
Meanwhile, officials said people must follow evacuation orders.
“It will take time for the area to dry out, especially if it rains repeatedly,” says Baumann.
The chairman of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, Luis Alejo, tweeted on Saturday that the “worst case scenario” of the Pajarro River overflowing and levee breaching has arrived. Around midnight local time.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, the breach was 100 feet wide, officials said.
Sheriff’s deputies escorted residents remaining in the affected areas to their homes before the water flooded their homes, county emergency services manager Jerry Murray said.
“National Guard High Water Rescue Vehicles requested by Monterey County and members of the Rapid Rescue Team are also at the scene,” the county said Saturday.
To mitigate yet another natural disaster hitting California, President Joe Biden has approved a state of emergency requested by Governor Gavin Newsom. The move will free up funds for millions of residents who have been hit by bad weather since the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo has declared a state of emergency for the northern counties of Churchill, Douglas and Lyon due to flooding associated with the same storm.
“Severe weather has brought heavy rains, flooding and infrastructure damage to northern Nevada. As severe weather conditions continue, further flooding and infrastructure damage is expected throughout the region,” the governor’s office said. said in a statement.
Cars and trucks drive through a flooded street in Salinas, California, March 10.
parts of california got more than a foot of rain
Atmospheric rivers, long narrow strips of moisture carrying warm air and water vapor from the tropics, brought heavy rains where they could not bear more.
Anderson Peak in Monterey County was soaked with 13.63 inches of rain, according to the NWS San Francisco office. Elsewhere in the county, Hearst Castle alone received 11.61 inches and 8.36 inches of rainfall.
Pacifica in San Mateo County also saw double-digit precipitation, reporting 13.41 inches of precipitation. Several areas of Santa Cruz County received more than 5 inches of rain, while Sonoma County recorded an isolated rainfall of 6.56 inches.
The Tulea County Sheriff’s Office has received reports of widespread flooding, collapsed bridges, fallen trees and blocked roads.
The heavy rain came as 34 of California’s 58 counties were in a state of emergency issued by the governor’s office due to previous storms and the threat of severe weather this week.
Deer Creek floods swept across the landscape near Porterville, California on March 10.
Authorities release water from major dams
To manage heavy rainfall, California water authorities have begun releasing water from Oroville Dam’s main spillway for the first time in four years, according to a news release from the California Department of Water Resources.
The spillway of the Auroville Dam, the tallest dam in the United States at 770 feet on the Feather River, opened at noon Friday and is expected to remain so through the weekend.
Highway 190 was closed on March 11, 2023 due to landslides during heavy rains in Springville, California. Because an atmospheric river storm hit California.
“In anticipation of increased outflow and inflow into the reservoir, DWR has begun increasing water discharges from the Hyatt power plant and the main spillway into the Feather River. These discharges will provide flood control protection to downstream communities. “We are working closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other water utilities,” the ministry said, adding that tactics have been added.
In 2017, the dam was closed for two years after a powerful storm caused Lake Oroville to rise and flood the dam. It reopened in 2019 after the crew rebuilt it fully functional.
CNN meteorologists Taylor Ward and Haley Brink and CNN’s Taylor Romine, Rebekah Riess, Cheri Mossburg, Jillian Sykes, Joe Sutton, Sara Smart and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.
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