Richard Raymond Klein’s scheduled 1:30 p.m. arraignment will come six days after he was arrested in Mexico by United States law enforcement officers, with help from Mexican police, on suspicion of the December murder in Suisun City.

Klein was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service while he was in Rosarito, just south of the U.S.- Mexico border and part of the greater San Diego-Tijuana region.

He was then transported back into the states and held for a time in San Diego, where he was arrested early Friday by Solano County Sheriff’s investigators and booked into custody later in the day.

Also, Klein was held on a felony warrant out of Contra Costa County on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of narcotics for sale, possession of a controlled substance while armed, and possession of a controlled substance for sale.

He remains in Solano County Jail without bail for the murder allegation and $450,000 in bail on the charges listed in the warrant.

Suisun City police said that at about 9:50 p.m. Dec. 15, a 37-year-old man was killed in the 1200 block of Potrero Circle.

Investigators, working closely with the Solano County District Attorney’s Office and the Major Crimes Task Force, were able to identify Klein as the suspect and locate him. He was taken into custody at about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday in Rosarito.

Klein was arrested on suspicion of the murder and likely will face additional felony charges once arraigned on Tuesday.

In a social media post last week, Suisun City police officials, saying the investigation remains ongoing and no more details would be released at this time, ask that anyone with relevant information about the December shooting should call 421-7373.

The Solano County Coroner on Monday declined to identify the second murder victim, saying his name was “protected” by the Suisun Police Department. Suisun City Police Commander Jeff Henderson did not return the Reporter’s request on Monday for more information.

A Solano County Superior Court judge in November ordered Klein to face a jury trial for the April shooting in Fairfield.

After a held-to-answer arraignment, Judge Robert Bowers told Klein to return to Department 15 in the Justice Building in Vallejo for the trial at 9 a.m. Jan. 25.  The judge also scheduled some pretrial matters, among them a trial management conference at 9 a.m. Jan. 23.

Klein, who is represented by criminal defense attorney Dustin M. Gordon of Vallejo, is accused of killing a man on April 21.

Court records showed Gordon submitted a motion for adequate bail and release on Nov. 10 and Klein submitted a fingerprint card and appears to have been released from jail on Nov. 14.

Arrested May 3 in the 1200 block of Vine Drive in Fairfield and booked into Solano County Jail, Klein is accused of fatally shooting Anthony Fuimaono, 56, of Fairfield, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Police records show that around 11:30 p.m. on April 21, a group had gathered outside a home in the 300 block of Manzanita Avenue.

An investigation revealed that an argument occurred and guns were drawn, police said. Fuimaono was shot during the chaos.

On May 5, Klein, a large man at 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 280 pounds, appeared in Department 11 in Fairfield for an arraignment on the charges. Solano County District Attorney’s Office filed its criminal complaint on May 5.

If convicted at trial for the April killing, Klein, who was convicted of a felony in 2006 in Contra Costa County, faces 25 years to life for the murder and likely more time for using a firearm and being a previously convicted felon.

So how do people still get caught in the crosshairs of megastorms that have proven their ability to flood cars, ravage homes and claim lives? Have Californians—once roundly ridiculed as weather wimps—already become jaded to atmospheric rivers and overconfident that they can handle the hazards?

Meteorologists only really started digging into complicated questions about weather psychology like these around 20 years ago, according to Rebecca Morss, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

There’s a long list of reasons why people either can’t stay home in this extreme weather, or simply choose not to, so researchers are focusing on the best ways to help people recognize the risks. They want to avoid normalizing extreme events, or making people so afraid of weather reports that they shut down and reject the information entirely.

“Different people are going respond to different information in totally different ways—some people really trust authorities and science, some people don’t,” Morss said, explaining how political and cultural views complicate weather warnings. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. I think if this were an easy problem, we probably would have solved it by now.”

While scientific knowledge and forecast technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last 30 years, Morss said crafting messaging that encourages emergency preparation without overstating the risks—a sure way to lose the public’s trust—is still a challenge, especially as extreme weather events become more frequent across the country due to climate change.

This messaging—and the collective response to it—has shifted significantly over the last few decades.

A lack of official warnings was partially to blame for hundreds of deaths during a 1976 flash flood in Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon. But by 2011, after one of the deadliest tornados in U.S. history ripped through Missouri, researchers concluded that many residents had become desensitized to sirens and warnings.

At a basic level, she said it’s important to avoid meteorologist jargon, steer clear of complex information and repeat messaging to help people avoid finding themselves in a tragic situation.

“A lot of people have seen extreme weather on TV or been close to it, but how many of us have really experienced a truly life-threatening situation due to weather?” Morss pointed out. “It’s really hard to know exactly where (flooding) is going to happen, and it’s also just really hard for a person to imagine the place that they know and see every day suddenly being under all this water.”

Storms are unpredictable, she said, and it can be hard for someone to reliably judge when a normally safe roadway or other location has become an unsafe one—until it’s too late.

“We’ve all done things that we look back on afterwards and say, ‘Wow, I was so lucky,’” Morss said.

Significant storm systems in California are a routine occurrence, but Warren Blier, a meteorologist and science officer with the National Weather Service in Monterey, immediately knew the current set of storms was different.

“One day in late December, I was looking at computer model output through the extended portion of the forecast, and I remember thinking, ‘I just don’t see an end to this,’” Blier said. “What was so extraordinary was that even early on, it was starting to look to me like the possibility of just system after system after system.”

It was the first time he remembers seeing that kind of forecast since the El Niño winter of 1997-98.

“Astonished, that would be too strong,” Blier said of his reaction, “but it was more of a ‘wow’ moment—a series of ‘wow’ moments.”

While these weather conditions might generate more of a shrug for people in other parts of the country—from the Rockies and the Great Plains to the East Coast—there’s more potential for extreme impacts in a more vulnerable state like California.

He said it’s all about what people have learned and prepared for over time.

“I think people from other parts of the country who don’t routinely experience significant earthquakes find it a little mind-boggling that it doesn’t discomfort people here more, and the reverse is true when it comes to the weather stuff,” Blier said. “In Minnesota, you kind of know what weather you’re going to have, and things are designed around that. But for a generally reasonable, pleasant climate in California, when you suddenly throw in all these winds and all this water, (the state) is not really designed to accommodate all that because it’s not what routinely occurs.”

One of the most important developments in recent years is more collaboration between meteorologists and local emergency management workers—sharing weather expertise and predictions, and seeking out the best ways to disseminate that information to the community.

Daily weather briefings from the National Weather Service are sent to people like Kia Xiong, Santa Clara County’s emergency risk communications officer, who helps coordinate resources when those forecasts trigger the county’s inclement weather plans.

She said those plans activate outreach teams to reach unsheltered communities, especially along the creeks and waterways, while other public information officers blast messaging over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, NextDoor and the county’s website.

Xiong said they stick to static posts with text and a photo—avoiding videos and gifs that relay information too slowly—to share what is happening, what people need to do and a URL or phone number to access resources. These posts are translated into English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Tagalog, and include accessibility features like alt-text.

“That’s how we made sure that we’re reaching a broad audience and that no one is missed,” Xiong said. “The pandemic certainly changed the way we push out messaging, because now we have to make sure that all of our documentation, all of our social media posts, all of our graphics are accessible to everyone.”

But at the end of the day, community members are left to assess risks for themselves.

“Sometimes people do look out the window and see that it’s not raining as hard as the weather service or public government is saying,” Xiong said. “So it really is up to community members themselves to make those decisions.

“We can only say, ‘Hey, stay off the road’ so many times.”

An estimated 675 Bay Area jobs are being lost as a result of decisions orchestrated by seven companies that are in the tech, advanced manufacturing, or biotech sectors, according to a Bay Area News Group review of official notices received by the state Employment Development Department.

Jabil; Verily Life Sciences, which is a moonshot company launched by Google owner Alphabet; Flexport; Stitch Fix; Scale AI; Arris Composites; and Janssen Pharmaceuticals are among the latest companies to reveal plans for job cuts, the EDD notices show.

In addition, another group of workers with Flagship Facilities Services, while not tech staffers, lost their jobs in Menlo Park as a result of lessened requirements by Facebook app owner Meta Platforms, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the EDD.

Here are details of some of the most recent disclosures of Bay Area layoffs by tech or biotech firms:

• Jabil, a contract electronics manufacturer, has decided to eliminate 205 jobs in Alameda County. These include 166 job cuts in Fremont and another 39 in Livermore. The layoffs are slated to occur on March 7. “We do not anticipate that these employees will return to work in the foreseeable future,” Alicia Marjon, a Jabil human resources manager, stated in the WARN notice. These Jabil job cuts are expected to be permanent.
• Verily Life Sciences has decided to reduce staffing by 119 positions at its headquarters in South San Francisco. The company is a life sciences moonshot that was launched by Google owner Alphabet. “The separation of employment of the affected employees with the company in connection with a company-wide reduction in force is expected to be permanent and there will not be any bumping rights,” Kerrie Peraino, chief people officer with Verily, stated in the WARN letter. The Verily layoffs are due to be effective on March 12.
• Flexport, a supply-chain software startup, is cutting 120 jobs in San Francisco. The layoffs are described as “permanent,” the EDD public website shows.
• Stitch Fix, an online apparel and personal styling service, has decided to chop 97 jobs in San Francisco on a permanent basis. The layoffs are due to be effective on March 6.
• Scale AI, an artificial intelligence company, is cutting 68 jobs in San Francisco, saying the staff reductions are permanent. The layoffs began in late December and are due to occur in waves that will be complete by March 31.
• Arris Composites is cutting 65 jobs in Berkeley. Arris uses advanced technologies to help create cutting-edge products and materials for a wide range of uses. The cuts are permanent and were effective on Nov. 7 of last year. However, they were not posted until Jan. 10 of this year.
• Janssen Pharmaceuticals is cutting one job in Vacaville. The layoff is due to be effective on March 10.

“Flagship Facility Services has decided that it must permanently lay off 126 of its employees at Meta Platforms’ Menlo Park facility,” Michele Babb, a Flagship Facility vice president, said in a WARN notice to the EDD.

The company specifically provides culinary and cafeteria services to Meta Platforms. The terminations are scheduled to occur on March 6.

“The employees are represented by Unite Here! Local 19 and have bumping rights as may be provided by their collective bargaining agreement,” Babb stated in the WARN notice.

If so, then the IRS understands it may put a damper on your filing of federal individual and business tax returns and the making of tax payments. It is willing to cut you some slack.

California storm victims now have until May 15 to file, the government agency has announced.

The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. What does that mean?

It means that individuals and households that live in or have a business in Solano County and dozens of other counties, including Yolo, Napa, Contra Costa and Marin, qualify for tax relief. (For the complete list of counties, visit the Tax Relief in Disaster Situations page on IRS.gov.)

The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting on Jan. 8, and, as a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until May 15 to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.

This includes 2022 individual income tax returns due on April 18, as well as various 2022 business returns normally due on March 15 and April 18. Among other things, this means that eligible taxpayers will have until May 15 to make 2022 contributions to their IRAs and health savings accounts, IRS officials said in a press statement issued Tuesday.

In addition, farmers who choose to forgo making estimated tax payments and normally file their returns by March 1 will now have until May 15 to file their 2022 return and pay any tax due.

The May 15 deadline also applies to the quarterly estimated tax payments, normally due on Jan. 17 and April 18. This means that individual taxpayers can skip making the fourth quarter estimated tax payment, normally due Jan. 17 and instead include it with the 2022 return they file, on or before May 15.

The May 15 deadline also applies to the quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on Jan. 31 and April 30. In addition, penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Jan. 8 and before Jan. 23 will be abated as long as the tax deposits are made by Jan. 23, IRS officials said.

The Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief for Individuals and Businesses page has details on other returns, payments and tax-related actions qualifying for the additional time.

The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area. Therefore, taxpayers do not need to contact the agency to get this relief. However, if an affected taxpayer receives a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the IRS that has an original or extended filing, payment or deposit due date falling within the postponement period, the taxpayer should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated.

Individuals and businesses in a federally declared disaster area who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can choose to claim them on either the return for the year the loss occurred (in this instance, the 2023 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year (2022, normally filed this tax season). Be sure to write the FEMA declaration number – 3691-EM − on any return claiming a loss. See Publication 547 for details.

The tax relief is part of a coordinated federal response to the damage caused by these storms and is based on local damage assessments by FEMA. For information on disaster recovery, visit disasterassistance.gov.

The Bay Area inflation rate in December was 4.9% as measured over a one-year period, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, down from 6 percent in the previous report in October.

Nationwide, consumer prices rose 6.5% during the 12 months ending in December, which was also a decline from the national inflation rate in recent months.

“For both consumers and businesses, inflation is having a very great impact,” said Patrick Kallerman, vice president of research for the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. “This slow cooling in consumer prices is what we were hoping for.”

Still, the Bay Area’s 4.9% increase in consumer prices remains far above the typical annual increase of about 2% to 3%, and it’s enough to cause pain for a lot of the region’s residents.

“Inflation hurts anybody whose income hasn’t kept up with the increase in prices, which is the case with most people,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. “Inflation hurts even more if you have no savings to fall back on.”

Several categories helped to fuel December’s jump in Bay Area consumer prices. Among the biggest increases in annual prices, as reported by the labor agency:

• Electricity utility costs soared by 18.4%. Pacific Gas & Electric is the principal provider of electricity services in the Bay Area.
• Dairy products rocketed 17.4% higher.
• Natural gas was up 14.7%. PG&E has warned that gas utility costs could zoom still higher this winter due to spikes in market prices for natural gas.
• Food is costing 10.2% more on a yearly basis.
• Meat, poultry, fish and eggs cost 7.6% more than they did the year before. Anyone who has been to the grocery store recently knows that eggs, on their own, have zoomed far higher.
• Cereals and bakery items prices are up 6.3% on an annual basis.
• Household furnishings and supplies are up 4.9%

The 6.5% inflation rate for the United States is at least twice as high as the target that the Federal Reserve has set for consumer price increases as it seeks to maintain healthy growth. But it was also the slowest increase since October 2021, a pullback driven by falling gas prices and cheaper airfares.

President Biden greeted the report enthusiastically, emphasizing the role that his policies — including efforts to lower the cost of gas — have played in helping prices to climb more slowly. In remarks from the White House on Thursday, the president said that moderating inflation “adds up to a real break for consumers, real breathing room for families and more proof that my economic plan is working.”

The Fed, alarmed by the prospect of runaway inflation, has embarked on an odyssey to raise interest rates in hopes that the increases will prompt consumers to scale back borrowing and spending, creating downward pressure on prices.

“All of these rising consumer prices filter into the economy in various ways,” Kallerman said. “At some point you usually see wages respond because workers are seeking more money to spend. This creates a vicious cycle that the Fed is working hard to interrupt.”

But the central bank’s voyage toward higher interest rates could also cause businesses to cut back. Already, the Bay Area has seen multiple announcements of layoffs from major employers and tech giants.

“We’ll see a continued deceleration in job gains,” Levy said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bay Area goes negative and we see job losses, with all the tech layoffs that are happening now.”

A few key items provided some relief for consumers in the region.

Gasoline prices as measured by unleaded fuel fell 5.3% in December compared with the same month the year before, according to the government report.

Costs for used cars and trucks fell by 7.5% during the one-year period that ended in December.

Some experts believe that it’s possible the Federal Reserve could navigate the nation away from soaring consumer prices but still avoid steering into a whirlpool of job losses.

“We see some movement towards layoffs, but there is nothing catastrophic yet in the job market,” Kallerman said. “This slow cooldown is the kind of landing the Fed is seeking.”

Afterward, Judge William J. Pendergast, ending a three-week trial, ordered Pontarelli to return for sentencing at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 6 in Department 11 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.

At sentencing, Pontarelli, who remains in the Stanton Correctional Facility without bail, faces 25 years to life for the death of Samantha Jack, 22, of Elk Grove. He may face more time because the jury also found that he used a firearm to commit the crime, an enhancement.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Julie Underwood, who prosecuted the case over the many years, did not return a Reporter request for comment at press time.

Defense attorney Jessica Agnich of Redwood City could not be reached for comment at press time.

The jury’s relatively swift decision came one day after the attorneys, in their closing arguments, reiterated their cases to the 12-member panel, with Underwood emphasizing the killing in the early hours of July 22 “was a murder” while Agnich, in her final remarks to jurors, called it a “tragic accident.”

Jurors apparently agreed with Underwood’s forceful rebuttal statements to them that, if they again listened closely to the audio portion of a video recording made by a Pontarelli neighbor in the 400 block of Kentucky Street, she said, they would come to believe four things: There was an argument and Pontarelli hit her; he “held a gun on her”; heard a semi-automatic handgun “being racked,” meaning a bullet had entered the firing chamber with a ratcheting sound; and that “he shot and killed her.”

Seated at the defense table, Pontarelli showed no outward emotion as Underwood described him as a somewhat cold personality.

She noted he did not “shed a single tear” when he viewed the autopsy photos or other graphic evidence of the young woman he “allegedly loved.”

Underwood insisted the case “was about murder,” not the lesser included offenses of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, a reference to statements Pendergast made during his initial jury instructions at the outset of the Tuesday morning session.

She also questioned the credibility of defense witnesses, then, gesturing toward the jurors, said, “You are the ultimate finder of facts,” and that the defense witnesses were “clearly biased.”

While so-called expert witnesses have opinions, the jurors, Underwood asserted, could determine on their own what was actually said on the roughly 20-minute audio recording.

Despite one defense witness saying Pontarelli and Jack may have struggled over a firearm, Underwood said there was no struggle over a gun.

When Agnich objected to Underwood’s statement, Pendergast reminded jurors that attorney statements are not facts and not evidence.

In her closing argument, Underwood called Jack’s death “an unjustified killing.”

She said there was no doubt the two “had a dysfunctional relationship,” but that was not a reason to kill her.

At press time, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams, in a text message to The Reporter, wrote, “Our office is thankful for Deputy District Attorney Julie Underwood’s unwavering commitment to seek justice in this case.

“And although nothing our office says or does can bring back Samantha Jack, we are grateful that the jury reached a fair and just verdict and that the defendant will be held accountable for this brutal murder.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all her friends, family, and loved ones.”

Michael Mahoney, one of three Hells Angels from the Vallejo chapter of the outlaw motorcycle club indicted in 2022 on firearms allegations, appeared Tuesday for a status conference in a Sacramento courtroom of the U.S. Justice Department’s Eastern District of California. A previously convicted felon, he had pleaded not guilty to a pair of felony firearms charges on June 14.

But court records show Judge John A. Mendez has scheduled a change-of-plea hearing in the case and ordered Mahoney, who is out of custody, to return to his courtroom at 9 a.m. Jan. 24.

If he pleads no contest to the charges, meaning he would not admit guilt but state he would offer no defense, it is unclear what his punishment may be.

However, had he gone to trial and been found guilty of possessing a firearm with an obliterated or altered serial number, he would face a maximum term of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. And if convicted of possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun, the second charge, Mahoney would face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

As previously reported, two other Vallejo chapter members have already pleaded guilty to firearms charges.

On Monday Dennis Killough Jr., 51, of Vacaville, entered his plea for being a felon in possession of two firearms. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 27 by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to court documents, on Dec. 8, 2021, law enforcement officers, using a search warrant, entered Killough’s home as part of an investigation into a brutal beating at the Vallejo chapter’s clubhouse.

In October 2021, two different victims — both of whom were members of a different motorcycle club that is considered a “puppet” (or subordinate) club of the Hells Angels — were beaten by Killough, Mahoney and another man for perceived infractions of the Hells Angels’ rules.

During the search of Killough’s home, officers found two firearms, including a Taurus G2C 9 mm compact pistol and a Taurus model PT 745 Pro handgun. Killough has prior felony convictions, including previous firearm convictions, which prohibit him from possessing firearms.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the Vacaville Police Department, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The third Vallejo chapter member, Jaime Alvarez, 52, of Vallejo, pleaded guilty in December to unlawfully possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony crime.

According to court documents, on Dec. 8, 2021, law enforcement officers served a search warrant at Alvarez’s home as part of an investigation into the brutal clubhouse beating.

During the search of Alvarez’s Vallejo home, officers found several firearms, including a Glock 27 .40 SW caliber handgun. Alvarez has prior felony convictions, which prohibit him from possessing firearms.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the Vallejo Police Department, and, as in the Killough case, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron D. Pennekamp and Jason Hitt are prosecuting the cases, part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, the centerpiece of the U.S. Department of Justice’s violent crime-reduction efforts.

Founded in 1948 in Fontana by Otto Friedli, the Hells Angels is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club. The Vallejo chapter, at one time considered the enforcer for the Oakland chapter — founded by the late Ralph “Sonny” Barger, who later became the club’s de facto leader — was notorious for two members’ involvement in an Oct. 5, 1986, mass murder of a family of four, including two children, ages 5 and 17, in Fort Bragg. It was a crime that made national headlines on Oct. 7, one day after two members of the Sonoma County chapter traveled to Fort Bragg and, at night, burned down a house near Highway 20 with the four bodies inside.

The footage from a body worn camera and an in-car camera was released within 45 days of the incident, in compliance with state law. Some areas were blurred for privacy reasons, officials said on social media.

Events unfolded around 2:30 a.m. Nov. 27 in the 4300 block of Central Place in Cordelia following a report of a man with a firearm at a motel. A deputy in the area responded to assist Fairfield police officers, meeting with victims in the parking lot of a neighboring McDonald’s before driving around the eatery with his K9 partner to aid in the search for the suspect.

Upon arrival, the deputy saw the suspect jump from the bushes and run through the drive-thru, officials said. The deputy deployed his canine, which followed the suspect around the building.

The suspect’s weapon was seized and officers rendered aid to the suspect, later identified as Robert Duncan Jr., 41, of Vallejo. Medics subsequently pronounced Duncan dead at the scene.

“Our condolences go out to the family, friends and all affected by this shooting,” officials said. “Any loss of life is tragic, and it is unfortunate this incident ended with this result.”

The matter remains under investigation by the District Attorney’s Major Crimes Task Force.

Six atmospheric river storms since the end of December have dumped half a year’s worth of rain on San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and other Northern California cities in two weeks. The ferocious weather has saturated soils and bolstered runoff while also smothering the Sierra Nevada in snow, leaving the statewide snowpack Wednesday at a breathtaking 226% of its historical average and setting up reservoirs to receive more water when it melts later this spring.

“There’s no getting around it. This is great for reservoir storage,” said Jeffrey Mount, a professor emeritus at UC Davis and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s water center. “It will clearly help the drought. We are likely to have full reservoirs this spring because there’s such a huge snowpack.”

Since Dec. 1, California’s 154 largest reservoirs have gone from 67% of their historical average capacity to 84%, adding roughly 4.7 million acre feet of water in six weeks — or enough for the annual consumption of 23 million people.

Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir at 35 miles long, has risen 37 feet since Dec. 1. The second largest, Oroville, in Butte County, has risen 97 feet, barely a year after state officials shut off the hydroelectric turbines in its dam for the first time in its 50-year history because of extremely low water levels.

“We’re all ecstatic,” said Lesley Nickelson, owner of Oroville Cycle, a store that sells boating and motorcycle equipment a few miles from Oroville Dam. “The marina has been way down at the bottom of a dirt hill for the past few years. People haven’t been going out on the lake. Now the boat ramps are underwater again. People are going back.”

The turnaround in some areas is stunning. On Monday, Lake Cachuma, the largest reservoir in Santa Barbara County, was 37% full. By Wednesday, following a pounding atmospheric river storm, it was 80% full.

Some reservoirs, such as Folsom northeast of Sacramento or Millerton, near Fresno, have risen so fast that their operators are releasing water to free up space and reduce flood risk for homes and businesses downstream.

“When there is storm after storm, we’re trying to make sure we are ready and prepared,” said Kristin White, Central Valley Operations director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Folsom and Millerton.

To be sure, many of California’s biggest reservoirs are steadily rising but are still a long way from being full. On Wednesday, Shasta, near Redding, was 42% full, up from 31% on Dec. 1 but still only 70% of its historic average for the date. Oroville was 47% full Wednesday, up from 27% on Dec. 1 and now at 88% of its historical average.

Last year, a very wet December gave way to the driest January, February and March in a century, drawing the state back into drought after raising people’s hopes.

“We are certainly tracking better than last year,” said Molly White, operations manager of the State Water Project. “So far so good. This winter is on a good trajectory. We’ll see what happens in the next few months.”

State and federal officials caution that unseasonably hot weather in the coming months could melt much of the snowpack, or strong high pressure ridges could block new storms.

“Last year the spigot turned off,” White said. “We need to be patient to see how the winter unfolds.”

This week, many smaller local reservoirs already had filled completely.

In Marin County, all seven reservoirs operated by the Marin Municipal Water District were 100% full for the first time in four years. Loch Lomond Reservoir near Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which provides water for nearly 100,000 people in Santa Cruz, began spilling Sunday.

The seven reservoirs operated by the East Bay Municipal Utility District were 84% full Wednesday and rising. All three agencies said they do not expect to impose water restrictions or fines this summer.

“This is a relief. We have been waiting for these kind of storms for years now,” said Nelsy Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for East Bay MUD, which serves 1.4 million people in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. “It’s fantastic news after the last few years of non-stop bad news.”

In Silicon Valley, four of the 10 reservoirs operated by the Santa Clara Valley Water District are at or near 100% full — Almaden, Coyote, Chesbro and Uvas. But the district’s entire system is only 51% full because its largest reservoir, Anderson, near Morgan Hill, was ordered drained in 2020 by federal dam safety officials to complete a $1.2 billion earthquake safety project.

“We’re seeing a big boost to the reservoirs,” said Matt Keller, a district spokesman. “But the fact that Anderson is down is a real issue obviously for our local water supply. We are relying a lot on groundwater and imported water.”

As the climate continues to warm, scientists say more severe dry periods, followed by intense wet years, are becoming the norm. Eight of the past 11 years in California have been drought years. A study last year from Columbia University found that the last 22 years were the driest 22-year period in the American West in 2,000 years.

California must do a better job of capturing water in wet years to reduce the impacts of dry years on cities, farms, fish and wildlife, experts say.

“We have shifted into a pattern where we have to be much more careful about our use of water,” Mount said. “We need to do more to sock away water in the wet years.”

The state should build more stormwater capture projects, as Los Angeles is doing, fund more projects to flood fields and orchards to recharge groundwater, and construct more off-stream reservoirs, Mount said.

Tim Quinn, a former water fellow at Stanford University who also ran the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, agreed.

“We need to build it into our minds that we live in a state that is in a continual state of drought, punctuated by occasional very wet periods,” Quinn said. “How do we take advantage of the wet years?”

A timeline has not been given for when the stores will close.

The closures are part of a plan to try to stabilize the company’s finances and turn around its declining sales.

In August, the home goods retailer secured more than $500 million in new financing and announced it would close 150 of its stores and slash its workforce by 20%. The company said Tuesday it was on track to meet that goal and hinted the strategy likely will involve bankruptcy.

As of Feb. 26, 2022, the company had about 32,000 employees.

Bed & Bath’s options in Chapter 11 include pursuing a sale of either its baby clothing, accessories and furniture brand, or the whole company, as well as seeking additional financing from new or existing investors to help it turn the business around.

Aside from its namesake brand, the retailer had 135 Buybuy Baby stores and 51 locations under the Harmon, Harmon Face Values or Face Values banners at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022.

It also opened five Buybuy Baby stores in that three-month period ending May 28 last year.

Any path the company chooses will likely include more store liquidations and layoffs, according to Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, a New York-based retail consulting firm.

“If they file for bankruptcy, they’ll come out of it, even if they have to cut their store fleet in half to succeed,” he said. “I don’t see anyone else coming in to take it over. They’ll look to where most of their online sales and store volumes are coming from and they’ll keep those.”

The company operates 708 Bed Bath & Beyond locations in the U.S., including 69 in California, according to ScrapeHero, a data-gathering firm.

Bed Bath & Beyond initiated a turnaround plan in the third quarter of fiscal 2022, but it failed to gain enough traction, according to President and CEO Sue Gove.

“Although we moved quickly and effectively to change the assortment and other merchandising and marketing strategies, inventory was constrained and we did not achieve our goals,” Gove said in a statement.

The retailer posted a net loss of nearly $393 million in its fiscal third quarter, deeper than the $276.4 million loss posted a year earlier.

“Multiple paths are being explored and we are determining our next steps thoroughly, and in a timely manner,” Gove said.

Sales slid 33% to $1.26 billion for the three months ending Nov. 26, compared with $1.88 billion a year earlier. And sales at stores open at least a year — a key gauge of a retailer’s health — dropped 32%.

Phibbs said the company’s momentum began to wane when Mark Tritton, the former chief merchandising officer at Target, took over as CEO in 2019.

“He stopped their coupons and they lost of a lot of business,” Phibbs said. “Customers voted with their feet.”

In June 2022, the company announced Tritton was out and Gove subsequently took the helm.

While the company’s recent quarterly performance was not a surprise given Bed Bath & Beyond’s update on its results last week, Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement that it’s still a bit of a shock and only adds to concerns about the company’s survival.

“A third of revenue has vanished, plunging an already beleaguered company into the depths of chaos,” he said.

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