The fifth atmospheric river storm in 10 days, an onslaught of soaking weather that has drenched Northern California since New Year’s Eve, 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 tops of their banks.
The San Lorenzo River at Big Trees, near Henry Cowell State Park, rose to 24.51 feet by 7:30 a.m. — 8 feet over its flood stage and the second-highest level recorded since modern records began in 1937.
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. More rain was forecast Tuesday and this weekend.
“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.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch until Tuesday afternoon covering the Bay Area, Monterey Bay region and Sacramento Valley.
State officials said that storms since Dec. 31 have steadily boosted reservoir levels. Due to three years of severe drought, many of the largest, such as Shasta and Oroville, are rising but still remained at below-average levels, which was helping reduce flood risk.
“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.
But the storms, blamed for 12 deaths around the state since New Year’s Eve, found a bull’s eye early Monday morning on the Monterey Bay Area.
With water just inches from the bottom of two bridges in Felton, including the historic 1892-era Covered Bridge, Santa Cruz County officials ordered the Felton Grove neighborhood and the Paradise Park area down river near Santa Cruz evacuated.
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 near the store before it opened.
“I’ve been working here for seven years and never seen it like that,” said Rojas, 44.
Scotts Valley Water District General Manager David McNair stood alongside Rojas, unable to get to work after flooding submerged the Mount Hermon Road intersection between Felton and Scotts Valley.
“There’s literally no way out of the valley right now,” McNair said. “We got so much rain last night it was astonishing.”
VIDEO: Rescues on Highway 101, Flooding across the Bay Area
It came as flood waters from Uvas Creek spilled their banks, flooding houses on the 4000 block of Monterey Road, near Highway 101. The occupants of the houses had already left their residences by the time emergency crews arrived, according to Josh Shifrin, a Cal Fire battalion chief in Santa Clara County.
For the 24 hours ending at 5 p.m. Monday, Boulder Creek and Ben Lomond, the watershed for the San Lorenzo River, received more than 4 inches of rain. Over the past week, the area has received 11 inches. When all that water pours through the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it emerges in Felton before flowing through downtown Santa Cruz, which is protected by levees, to the Pacific Ocean.
Smaller but significant rainfall amounts also fell across the rest of the region. San Francisco received 1.44 inches, Oakland 1.8 inches and downtown San Jose .95 inches in the 24 hours ending at 5 p.m. Monday. Higher elevations took the brunt of the storm, with Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County receiving 2 inches, Middle Peak in Marin County getting 3.01 inches, and Mining Ridge in Big Sur receiving a staggering 12.25 inches.
The San Lorenzo River at Third and Riverside in Santa Cruz. Tons of debris. Likely going higher. pic.twitter.com/Xyj0itNjEi
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) January 9, 2023
Along 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. Monday. Before dawn, as flood waters were rising, she went back for her cat “Baby,” wading through chest-deep water.
“My house is in the water, but I saved my cat,” she said. “I just care about my kitty.”
Across the Bay Area, where hillsides were saturated, nervous water managers, public safety officials and residents watched rivers rise.
The Guadalupe River in San Jose nearly hit its flood stage Monday morning but did not have significant 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.
On the edge of downtown San Jose, the Guadalupe spilled into an overflow channel designed to prevent the area from the flooding.
“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.
Watching the brimming Guadalupe River near the historic Henry’s Hi-Life bar on the edge of downtown San Jose, Mike Wright, 69, recalled the devastating flooding in 1995. At the time, he was drinking beer at another bar nearby at Julian and Montgomery, Greg’s Ballroom.
“The water came up to the threshold,” he said. “So what do you do? You order another pitcher.”
Emergency officials were carefully monitoring burn scars and mudslide risk statewide. In Montecito, near Santa Barbara, the sheriff evacuated 10,000 people, five years after a mudslide killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in 2017.
The Sierra Nevada was expected to get at least 3 feet of new snow by Tuesday. Flood concerns also were rising in the Sacramento Valley, where the Sacramento River spilled over protective weirs into bypass channels. State officials said they had distributed 180,000 sandbags to flood-prone communities and were helping shore up levees on the Pajaro River in Watsonville, Bear Creek in Merced County and the Cosumnes River in Sacramento County.
Sunday night, President Biden approved an emergency declaration for California at the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom, which directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide resources and coordinate disaster relief efforts.
Monday was not a good day to be driving. Near Gilroy, Uvas Creek sent flood waters knee deep across the four lanes of Highway 101, stranding several cars and blocking traffic by noon.
“It’s like the Philippines right here, bro,” said Richard Barcellano, whose Lexus ISF sports car needed a push out of the water. “TikTok this!”
Along the coast, businesses owners continued to mop up in Capitola Village after record waves smashed a 40-foot hole in Capitola Wharf late last week and flooded waterfront restaurants.
In the nearby town of Soquel, Ashley and Derek Harper evacuated their creekside home and the houses of their neighbors on Wharf Road, with their baby Lydia, for the second time since New Year’s Eve when the town’s main street was left underwater.
By 9 a.m. Monday, the Harpers’ ground-floor studio, workshop and garage were filled with two feet of muddy water from Soquel Creek. A sheriff’s deputy had come knocking around 5 a.m. telling them to leave.
“About 45 minutes later, the water was at the front step,” said Derek Harper, 45, a solar services technician. “We had bags packed already.”
In Paradise Park, a community in redwood forest just north of Santa Cruz, the San Lorenzo River pounded a section of road into rubble, flooded at least a dozen homes and swept a tree trunk into the historic covered bridge, built in 1872, shearing off one of two posts holding the span up above the river.
Retired UC Santa Cruz librarian Joanne Nelson said her riverfront house was flooded on the bottom level, with floodwater washing away the sandbags she’d put in front of the downstairs bedroom and breaking the door. “It invited itself in, big time,” said Nelson, 80.
Mudslides closed portions of Highway 9, snarled traffic on Highway 17 and closed parts of Highway 37 in Marin County. Caltrans closed Highway 84 in Niles Canyon east of Fremont, and Highway 1 in Big Sur from Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County, to Palo Colorado in the north. And more rain is on the way Tuesday and this weekend.
“We see a couple more on the horizon, so we will be in this state for quite a bit,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the state Department of Water Resources.
Staff writer Jason Green contributed to this report.
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