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An atmospheric river battering California has prompted evacuations, a Presidential Emergency Declaration and an increasingly dire warning that more heavy rain is coming for portions of the state.
The central part of California was especially hammered by flooding: Roads dramatically flooded around Kern County and National Guard members encountered floodwaters as they deployed to help first responders in Santa Cruz County.
Forecasters’ concerns are primarily concentrated away from the state’s major population centers. On Saturday afternoon, Los Angeles and San Diego were free of weather watches, warnings and advisories; the San Francisco Bay Area was under an expansive flood watch.
Meanwhile, forecasters said a winter storm could dump a foot of snow or more on northeast North Dakota, part of a storm impacting parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan this weekend.California storm impacts: Flooded roads, evacuations, levees breached
More than 9,000 California residents were under evacuation orders Friday. First responders rescued dozens of people Saturday in a Northern California agricultural community after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached. In the Central Valley’s Tulare County, another levee breach prompted evacuations on Friday.
Monterey County Board of Supervisors Chair Luis Alejo said in a tweet that it would take months for residents to repair the damage to their homes from flooding in Parajo, a largely Latino unincorporated Monterey Bay community.
« We need all the help we can get from our state and federal leaders to assist our families through this devastating hardship! » Alejo said.
And in an unusual move, officials opened spillways at Lake Oroville for the first time since April 2019 because one of the most important reservoirs in the state had too much water.
