The move frees funds for the millions of residents who have been hit with severe weather since the beginning of the year. To alleviate yet another natural disaster gripping California, President Joe Biden approved a state of emergency declaration requested by Gov. “National Guard high-water rescue vehicles that were requested by the County of Monterey and swift-water rescue team members are also on the scene,” the county said earlier Saturday. Sheriff’s deputies were going door-to-door to get remaining residents in affected neighborhoods to leave before water inundated their homes, said county Office of Emergency Services Manager Gerry Malais. Saturday, the breach was 100 feet wide, officials said. Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County board of supervisors, tweeted Saturday that the “worst case scenario” had arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and a levee breaching around midnight local time.Īt 9 a.m. “It will take some time, particularly with repeated rain events, for the area to dry,” said Bauman. In the meantime, officials said people need to obey evacuation orders. Workers attempted to prevent the levee catastrophe Friday night, but they were “overwhelmed by the flows coming down that watershed,” said Lew Bauman, interim manager of the county’s Water Resources Agency. The flooding has forced local emergency crews to rescue more than 90 people in Monterey County, Sheriff Tina Nieto said in a news briefing Saturday afternoon. Soquel is one of the hardest-hit areas in Santa Cruz County, soaking more than 6.5 inches of rain in certain areas while widespread rainfall was about 2 inches, according to a report from the National Weather Service office in San Francisco.Īs of Saturday morning, more than 41,000 homes and businesses across the state were without power, with about 30,000 of those outages in coastal Monterey County, according to tracking site.

snowbank survives nearly a week on croissants and candy Christian Jouret/Christian JouretĨ1-year-old stuck in Calif. Jerry Jouret, shown with grandson Christian, said he is recovering well. Flood warnings were still in effect across portions of northern and central California through early Saturday. Melting snowpack will play a role in prolonging flooding over the upcoming days, forecasters have said.Ībout 15 million people were under flood watches – stretching from as far north as Redding southward to San Bernardino in California, and included parts of northwest Nevada.

The impacts from this week’s storms have been compounded after severe rainfall was dumped over the same areas buried by heavy snowfalls the past two weeks. “Overall the environmental ingredients aren’t as impressive as the recent strong atmospheric river event, but nonetheless a prolonged period of light to occasionally moderate rainfall is expected across parts of central to northern California” on Saturday, the Weather Prediction Center said. Nathan Frandino/ReutersĢ dead, nearly 10,000 under evacuation orders as California floods intensify A portion of Interstate 580 is closed due to flooding from an atmospheric river storm system in Oakland, California.

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