California braces for further flooding as residents evacuated
More than 50 people were rescued near the Pajaro River, which topped its banks in Monterey County.
(Bloomberg) — California prepared for further flooding after officials on March 12, 2023, ordered the evacuation of residents along the Salinas River in Monterey County following deluges that forced the closure of coastal Highway 1 and roads in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The order comes after a levee breach along the Pajaro River in Monterey County on March 10, night inundated the farm town of Pajaro, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents in the agricultural region and leading the county to issue an unsafe drinking water alert for the area, as wells may be contaminated with floodwaters. California Governor Gavin Newsom extended the state of emergency to six counties, taking the total to 40, on March 12.
With another atmospheric river set to strike the state, the National Weather Service warned of widespread flooding, high winds and power outages in Northern and Central California. The weather service has put the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast under a flood watch from Monday night through Wednesday morning, warning of rapidly rising creeks, streams and rivers.
The forecast sees three to seven inches of rain in the region’s hills with valley areas receiving one to three inches. Some mountain areas could be hit with as much as eight inches of precipitation.
“Soils are very saturated, making us very prone to flooding with the Monday night and Tuesday storm,” the weather service’s Bay Area office said on Twitter.
Governor Newsom on Sunday proclaimed six more counties are entitled to storm relief — Calaveras, Del Norte, Glenn, Kings, San Benito and San Joaquin.
Flooding in the Bay Area shut down a portion of Interstate 880 in Fremont. The Capitol Corridor rail service was rerouting trains around Fremont and Hayward due to a washout. In San Mateo County, damage from a landslide blocked a stretch of Highway 84, which connects Silicon Valley to the coast. Roads in South Lake Tahoe were impassable from flooding.
The weather service issued a tornado warning for Merced County in the state’s Central Valley after funnel clouds were spotted on March 12.
Photos and videos posted to social media showed widespread flooding in Pajaro, a town home to agricultural workers employed in a region known for its strawberry crop. Strawberries were Monterey County’s most valuable crop in 2021, bringing in $968 million of $4.1 billion in total agricultural revenues, according to the county agricultural commissioner.
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