California flooding: More storms forecast for weekend as experts warn heavy rain won’t fix drought

A highway in San Mateo County has been shut indefinitely in both directions because of a sinkhole.

Highway 92 was closed from Upper Skyline Boulevard to Pilarcitos Creek Croad at 3.30am, NBC Bay Area reports.

The roadway was closed on Wednesday for hours because of potentially hazardous conditions, specifically the possibility of a sinkhole forming in the westbound lane. The eastbound lane was reopened for a while, but now drivers have been asked to use alternate routes.

Highway 92 links the county’s Bayside and Coastside regions.

Crews worked to reopen major highways that were closed by rockslides, swamped by flooding or smothered with mud while more than 10,000 people who were ordered out of seaside towns on the central coast were allowed to return home.

That included Montecito, a wealthy Santa Barbara County community that is home to Prince Harry and other celebrities where 23 people died and more than 100 homes were destroyed in a mudslide five years ago.

This week’s storm brought back harrowing memories for Montecito resident Susanne Tobey, who was rescued when the 2018 mudslide roared through her community.

Like five years ago, when the community was asked to evacuate on Monday, the only highway out was closed, she said. “It was terrifying,” she said of the latest storm. “I don’t think I slept the whole night and the rain was ... you just can’t imagine. It’s like just living in a waterfall.” But even with yet another storm on its way, Tobey said she plans to stay put again.

She said the community has made improvements that she hopes will prevent a similar tragedy, including adding steel nets to catch falling boulders, and debris basins to catch the deluge before it overtakes the hillsides that plunge into the Pacific Ocean.

“You have to be brave to live in California,” she said, adding: “I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

AP

State agencies are working hard to clear roadways in the eastern Sierra mountains that have seen huge snowfalls as lower elevations have struggled with torrential rain and flooding. The snowpack exceeds previous record levels seen over the winter of 1982-83.

The Palisades Tahoe ski resort reported that it had received 300 inches (7.6 metres) of snowfall so far this season.

In San Francisco, a tree fell on a commuter bus on Tuesday without causing injuries and lightning struck the city’s iconic Transamerica Pyramid building without damage. In South San Francisco, high winds also ripped away part of the roof on a large apartment building.

Crews wielding chainsaws were working around the clock to clear all the downed trees across the Bay Area. Arborist Remy Hummer said he expected many more trees to fall as rains returned.

“The soil is basically like a sponge, and at some point he can’t hold any more water and trees become essentially almost buoyant in the soil and very loose. And then you get the combinations of high winds and that’s when you get tree failures, meaning full trees uprooting and falling over,” he said.

Some people found themselves stranded in small communities inundated with water and mud.

“We’re all stuck out here,” Brian Briggs said, describing a scary night during which the deluge unleashed mudslides in remote Matilija Canyon that buried one house and cut off the only road to nearby Ojai. The canyon creek began to flood yards and the surrounding hills, which were stripped of vegetation in the 2017 Thomas Fire, began to tumble down in the dark.

Mudflows dragged sheds, gazebos and outhouses into the creek, Briggs said. After helping neighbors get to higher ground, he returned home to find his fence destroyed by waist-deep mud.

A helicopter dropped 10 sheriff’s deputies Tuesday to help the residents of dozens of canyon homes.

AP

The flooding of the Salinas River may cut off road access to the Monterey Peninsula, county officials warned.

It could happen as soon as Thursday afternoon and might last for up to three days — until Sunday.

“Some of the roadways are going to be closed and you could be stuck on one side or the other,” Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon, NBC Bay Area reports.

“Residents both on the peninsula and in the Salinas area should expect to be cut off for two to three days,” an advisory from Monterey County reads. Residents are urged to stay off roads and postpone travel.

Evacuation orders are already in effect for low-lying areas along the Salinas River, from north of Highway 68 to the Pacific Ocean.

“All residents and workers are urged to plan ahead,” Monterey City advised on Wednesday evening. “Anyone who is on the peninsula when flooding occurs will not be able to leave. Anyone who is not on the peninsula will not be able to enter.”

Evacuation maps are available here.

The wet and blustery weather left California’s large homeless population in a precarious situation. At least two homeless people in Sacramento County died and more than a dozen people were rescued from a homeless encampment on the Ventura River.

Theo Harris, who has lived on San Francisco’s streets since 2016, fortified his shelter with tarps and zip ties Tuesday and took in his girlfriend after her tent flooded.

“The wind has been treacherous, but you just got to bundle up and make sure you stay dry,” Harris said. “Rain is part of life. It’s going to be sunny. It’s going to rain. I just got to strap my boots up and not give up.”

On Monday night, streets flooded in several parts of Los Angeles, with water threatening a homeless encampment at an intersection in Hollywood.

AP

“Extreme” and “Exceptional” drought, the two most severe forms of drought have been almost entirely eliminated in California after weeks of storms and rainfall caused by the atmospheric river that has soaked the state since the beginning of the year.

According to data from the US Drought Monitor, areas experiencing Exceptional drought fell from 7.16 per cent to zero between 27 December and 10 January; and areas experiencing Extreme drought fell from 28.33 percent to just 0.32 per cent.

Almost all of the state remains in the Severe to Moderate drought classification, but only a tiny portion of the very north of the state is still classified as in the extreme category.

Parts of California have received more than three feet of rain since Christmas, while the Sierra Nevada Mountains have begun winter with a record snowfall that has already surpassed seasonal averages.

The data includes rainfall up until 4am local time on 10 January and so does not include the last two days of intense rainfall.

As large parts of California are battered by incessant rainfall due to the 50-year storm, experts are warning that the aftermath of the flooding may also bring a plethora of troubles for the golden state, including a spike in snake sightings.

Stuti Mishra reports.