![]() ![]() “The whole system is working good right now,” said Steve Holmes, executive director of the South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition who stood on St John Street observing the roiling brown waters. On the edge of downtown San Jose, the Guadalupe River spilled into an overflow channel designed to prevent the area from the flooding. Similarly, the Russian River at Guerneville was forecast to hit 33 feet by early Tuesday morning, 1 foot above flood stage, but far short of the all-time record 49 feet. The Guadalupe River in San Jose reached nearly hit its flood stage Monday morning, but did not have significant flooding. “I just care about my kitty.”Īcross the Bay Area, where hillsides were saturated, nervous water managers, public safety officials and residents watched rivers rise. “My house is in the water, but I saved my cat,” she said. Before dawn, as flood waters were rising, she went back for her cat “Baby,” and by morning she watched from high ground as her tent and all her belongings were swept down the river. Xyj0itNjEiĪlong the Pajaro River in Watsonville, Maria Corbera, 60, left her tent at a homeless encampment on the far side of the river at 2 a.m. The San Lorenzo River at Third and Riverside in Santa Cruz. Higher elevations took the brunt of the storm, with Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County receiving 2 inches, Mount Tamalpais in Marin County getting 3.01 inches, and Mining Ridge in Big Sur receiving a staggering 10.6 inches. 95 inches in the 24 hours ending at 2 p.m. San Francisco received 1.44 inches, Oakland 1.8 inches and downtown San Jose. Smaller, but significant rainfall amounts also fell across the rest of the region. When all that water pours through the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it emerges in Felton before flowing through downtown Santa Cruz, protected by levees, to the Pacific Ocean. Over the past week, the area has received 11 inches. Monday, Boulder Creek and Ben Lomond, the watershed for the San Lorenzo River, received 4 inches of rain. “I’m thrilled we’re getting rain,” he said, “but not all at once.”įor the 24 hours ending at 2 p.m. ![]() McNair said the heavy rains after years of severe drought are a relief for beleaguered water supplies, but come with their own set of troubles. SEVERE FLOODING: Felton Grove neighborhood is underwater. “We got so much rain last night it was astonishing.” “There’s literally no way out of the valley right now,” McNair said. Scotts Valley Water District General Manager David McNair stood alongside Rojas, unable to get to work after flooding closed the Mount Hermon Road intersection on the road between Felton and Scotts Valley. “I’ve been working here for seven years and never seen it like that,” said Rojas, 44. Sonia Rojas, who works at the Wild Roots natural foods store along the river bank, watched massive logs sail downstream from the Graham Hill Road bridge over the river near the store before it opened. “We have a lot of room to absorb these storms that are coming in,” said John Yarbrough, assistant deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources. Due to three years of severe drought, many of the largest, like Shasta and Oroville, are rising but remained at below-average levels, which was helping to reduce flood risk. 31 have begun to steadily increase reservoir levels, a positive trend. State officials said that storms since Dec. “In this drought era, a lot of folks in California may have forgotten just how significant the storms can get at times - how much water can fall from the sky over a relatively short period of time,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. More rain was forecast Tuesday and this weekend. Only during legendary floods in January 1982, when the river hit 28.8 feet and 10 people were killed in a mudslide at Love Creek near Ben Lomond, has the river run higher. 8 feet over its flood stage and the second-highest level ever recorded since 1937 when modern records began. The San Lorenzo River at Big Trees, near Henry Cowell State Park, rose to 24.51 feet by 7:30 a.m. The fifth atmospheric river storm in an onslaught of soaking weather that has drenched Northern California for the past 10 days hit hard again Monday, causing major flooding near Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains, submerging Highway 101 near Gilroy and sending creeks and rivers to the top of their banks. ![]()
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