For this point in the water year — which starts in October — the totals are around twice the average at many Bay Area spots. November was drier than normal, and December brought about double the average rainfall.

The totals below are from Dec. 1 to Jan. 16 at National Weather Service stations.

The site of the greatest reading, Uvas Canyon, is at 1,100 feet elevation near the Casa Loma fire station, about 2 miles east of Loma Prieta.

To the south, Mining Ridge, at 3,288 feet elevation in Big Sur, has recorded 84.16 inches from Dec. 1 to this week.

Read more: 35 key figures that sum up the atmospheric river blitz

Downpours triggered the release of millions of gallons of raw sewage mixed with rainwater across the region in just two weeks, spilling contaminated water into dozens of rivers, creeks and ultimately into the ocean and San Francisco Bay, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of 88 reports to the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

“Flooded waters contain pathogens,” warned Eileen White, executive officer for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. “If you touch flood waters, you want to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water to make sure that you don’t get yourself exposed.”

When sewage flows into homes and businesses, expensive remediation and decontamination is needed to make them safe again. Overflows also may have dangerous consequences for the environment, because human waste, pharmaceuticals, shampoos and other harmful products are flushed down drains and toilets.

In one incident, the Martinez Refinery Company reported releasing more than six million gallons of storm and wastewater into the Carquinez Strait estuary, which drains into the San Francisco Bay, on Jan. 4, according to state records. The discharge of partially treated “process water” and storm water was necessary to avoid damage to the refinery, the company reported.

Dozens of other smaller incidents were caused by open manhole covers, broken pipes and overwhelmed treatment facilities, from Corte Madera to Woodside and Half Moon Bay to Pleasanton.

State records show that between Dec. 31 and Jan. 3, a total of more than 14 million gallons of sewage were discharged in the San Francisco Bay region, enough to fill 21 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to White. The Jan. 4 storm triggered the release of another 8 million gallons, or 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

More recent releases are still being tallied. Experts say the total volume is likely to be much larger than current estimates because the chaotic circumstances surrounding these emergency flooding situations mean it’s nearly impossible to accurately evaluate the true scale and impact of sewage contamination.

Like bridges or skyscrapers designed to bear certain weights, stormwater management systems are designed within the limits of weather — and can’t handle the intensity of storms that might happen only every decade or two.

In dry times, waste from homes and businesses is whisked immediately away to wastewater-treatment plants, never to be seen, smelled or considered again.

But two weeks of near-constant storms have stressed the system, as heavy rainfall and flooding infiltrate sewer pipes.

“We saw 13 times our average wastewater flows,” said Andrea Pook of East Bay Municipal Utilities District.

Most of the releases were caused when storm water backs up into the streets, flowing up through drains or manhole covers forced open by the overwhelming volume of high-pressure torrents, the reports show.

In Redwood City, a manhole overflow sent polluted water into Borel Creek at a rate of 150 gallons per minute. In San Mateo, 100 to 150 gallons per minute flowed into a storm drain that empties into Polhemus Creek. About 50 gallons a minute were dumped into Sonoma Creek. In Oakland, the overflow of three manholes spilled 25,000 gallons into Lake Merritt.

When a sewage lift station in Daly City overflowed because of stormwater, 35,950 gallons of waste were released into the Pacific Ocean. The rupture of a main treatment line in Moss Beach also caused a spill into the ocean. In Pacifica, an overflowing pump station caused 20,000 gallons to be discharged at Linda Mar Beach.  About 34,000 gallons were released in Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood when a West Bay Sanitary treatment plant couldn’t keep up with the flow.

In Richmond, the West County Wastewater facility pumped sewage directly into the San Francisco Bay, according to a Jan. 11 report.  “It is unknown how long the releasing will be going for,” it said.

Three discharges into Oakland’s San Leandro Creek, Barnhill Marina and an estuary at the foot of Alice Street originated from the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s “overflow structures,” which are designed to discharge water in high-flow conditions.

Farther south, a sewage treatment plant was flooded Friday when the Salinas River rushed over the banks of a levee. Percolation ponds in the city of Templeton also were flooded, sending 300,000 gallons into the river.

Mother Nature is wreaking additional chaos. In Oakland, a tree fell on the sewer line, causing 5,100 gallons of sewage to be released into Sausal Creek. In Crockett, a hillside eroded and collapsed — causing a pipe to break and release 2,700 gallons. When debris blocked a sewer conduit, about 10,000 gallons overflowed into a drain that leads to Oakland’s Lake Temescal.

Records show that a single day — Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve — was responsible for the largest number of reports to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, with 51 discharges in different Bay Area cities.

On that morning alone, there were 15 sewage discharges in 12 cities: Hillsborough, Woodside, San Bruno, Daly City, Pacifica, Burlingame, Half Moon Bay, San Lorenzo, Richmond, Piedmont, Oakland and Daly City.  By midnight, there were an additional 36 discharges in 25 cities: Alameda, Oakland, San Mateo, Richmond, Pacifica, Martinez, El Granada, Montara, Pittsburg, Corte Madera, San Francisco, Antioch, Redwood City, Dublin, San Leandro, Albany, Berkeley, Woodside, Vallejo, Menlo Park, Benicia, Sausalito, Pleasanton, Foster City and Hayward.

The problem isn’t new, said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit focused on the health of the San Francisco Bay. But the constant rain has exacerbated the issue.

“Over the years, and typically every time it rains, we see sewage spills in the streets and wastewater overflows,” she said. “But the back-to-back-to-back-to-back major storm events is causing a continuous discharge. That’s what is new.”

With continued population growth, the demands on our sewer systems have increased, say experts. Meanwhile, more development leads to more asphalt and cement, so the bulk of the rainfall ends up in our sewage systems.  And our wastewater pipes, often made of clay, are aging, so water infiltrates through cracks and gaps.

The rate at which the urban Bay Area is adapting to these threats is lagging behind the speed at which rain is drowning it, said Choksi-Chugh.  Cities need to invest in replacing pipes and upgrading wastewater treatment systems to increase storage capacity and install more recycling technologies, she said. Cities also could incentivize homeowners to replace old pipes through grants or low-interest loans.

“Our old infrastructure is just not going to be up to snuff,” Choksi-Chugh said. “It’s not going to be able to handle these larger storm events, year upon year. So we really need to be thinking about the future.”

Fouled, the senior made the free throw.

Jalen Stokes followed with another basket in the paint after Dublin kept the possession alive with a couple of offensive rebounds.

What had been an eight-point lead over Monte Vista ballooned to 16 as the fourth quarter neared.

Dublin, ranked 11th by the Bay Area News Group, was well on its way to a 63-46 victory that improved the home team’s record to 13-6 overall and 2-0 in the East Bay Athletic League.

No. 15 Monte Vista, coming off a league-opening upset of third-ranked De La Salle on Tuesday, fell to 14-4, 1-1.

Stokes led Dublin with 16 points. Anderson and Mehki Thomas each finished with 13.

“Our mentality coming out of the halftime was just put it away,” Stokes said. “We were up pretty much the whole game. Our mentality was just put it away and finish strong.”

Mission accomplished.

Gaels earn the W with a 63-46 win over the Mustangs in front of a packed house in Dublin. pic.twitter.com/9j4ey3Pj2B

— Dublin High (@TheDublinHigh) January 14, 2023

The margin never got to single digits in the fourth quarter as Dublin’s athleticism took over. When Thomas threw down a dunk with three minutes to go to make it 59-43, Monte Vista coach Nick Jones had seen enough.

The backups finished the game.

“Once they got that edge on the glass, we were in trouble there,” Jones said. “I thought early, we punched back a little bit. I thought early on, we negated the crowd, the energy, and I thought we did a good job. We battled.

“But then at the end of the third quarter, we took a couple of bad shots and they just started getting really aggressive on the glass. That was a problem.”

Dublin coach Tom Costello said rebounding, particularly offensive rebounding, was the difference.

“We didn’t shoot it well,” he said. “We did not shoot it well at all. But we pounded the glass and got second, third, fourth efforts. That’s a hell of a team over there.”

Dublin packed its student section for what it called a Silent Night. The black-clad students remained silent until the Gaels scored their sixth point.

Then the crowd went wild.

Stokes’ drive put Dublin in front 6-0. But Monte Vista settled down and trailed by just a point after one quarter and five at halftime.

Sean Ahern’s basket to open the second half cut the deficit to 29-26. Dublin answered with a 7-0 run to take its first double-digit lead.

“We made more effort plays tonight,” Anderson said. “We got a lot more 50-50 balls and that led to us increasing the lead.”

Daniel Cojocaru (12 points) and Jake Fields (11) scored in double figures for Monte Vista, which will barely have time to catch its breath. The Mustangs play sixth-ranked Clayton Valley Charter on Saturday night in an MLK showcase at Miramonte before returning to EBAL play on Tuesday at eighth-ranked Granada.

Dublin will be at home Tuesday to face seventh-ranked California, which beat No. 2 San Ramon Valley on Friday.

After playing California, Dublin will visit De La Salle and San Ramon Valley.

“If there is ever an appropriate time for this cliche — one game at a time — is this sucker,” Costello said. “Nick asked me who we got next week. I was like, ‘I don’t even know.’ We’re going to enjoy this one and tomorrow it will be Cal, Cal, Cal.”

Multiple sources told the Bay Area News Group that Price and her new leadership team in their first full week in office moved to place at least three deputy district attorneys, including senior prosecutors, on leave.

Deputy District Attorneys John Brouhard, Butch Ford and Colleen McMahon are among the attorneys Price placed on paid administrative leave — a status that opens the door for their termination.

Additionally, Chief of Inspectors Craig Chew and Assistant Chief of Inspectors Andrea Moreland were fired, according to multiple sources. Unlike prosecutors, inspectors are considered at-will employees and can be terminated without arbitration. The attorneys placed on leave could not be fired until after a two-pronged process, which ends with a ruling by either an administrative law judge or an arbitrator.

On Friday, the mood inside the DA’s office ranged from demoralization to panic. Multiple employees were asked to inform their colleagues, and in some cases their friends, that they were to be placed on administrative leave and other attorneys sat in their offices wondering if they would be next, according to the sources.

Matt Finnegan, an attorney with the local union representing Alameda County prosecutors, said his office is representing the attorneys and will continue to do so “as more slips come in.”

“The biggest downside is that they aren’t going to be able to handle any cases while they’re on administrative leave,” Finnegan said.

It is unclear exactly why the prosecutors were shown the door. A spokeswoman for the DA’s office declined to comment.

However, Price had criticized some of the prosecutors, including Ford, during her 2022 campaign.

Ford, a longtime prosecutor with more than 30 murder trials under his belt, prosecuted an Oakland man, Shawn Martin, who won an appeal of his murder conviction over Ford giving jurors a misleading instruction. Martin was found not guilty on retrial, and later became a volunteer for Price’s campaign.

Martin’s case became a sticking point because just before his second trial, his attorney filed a failed motion to recuse the entire Alameda County DA’s office for alleged rampant misconduct. Just days before Price’s victory in the Nov. 8 election, Martin was identified as a suspect in a nonfatal shooting outside an Oakland bar and remains at large.

The shakeup also comes just days after Price reduced charges against suspected serial killer David Misch, who was being prosecuted by McMahon. Already incarcerated at a state prison hospital for stabbing a woman to death, Misch is facing a new trial in the slayings of two Fremont women and the abduction and killing of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht in Hayward, all cold cases from the 1980s.

Price dropped special circumstances charges against Misch, stirring controversy while making good on a campaign promise to review cases where individuals face life without the possibility of parole. It is the first of many such cases Price is expected to evaluate.

The official reason for sidelining Brouhard along with McMahon would be more of a mystery, if not for a common denominator among the two veteran prosecutors. While running for DA, Price held a press conference calling out McMahon, Brouhard and other prosecutors for using their government email accounts to campaign for Nancy O’Malley in 2018. O’Malley — who defeated Price and won re-election that year — announced her retirement in May 2021, opening up the seat for the first time in decades.

Price at the time said the prosecutors used county resources “to gain an unfair advantage” against her. Price and an attorney representing her campaign filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission alleging attorneys violated a state government code prohibiting an independent expenditure committee from coordinating with a candidate — in this case O’Malley.

The Fair Political Practices Commission investigation of the complaint filed by Price remains open, according to the FPPC. Like Ford, McMahon and Brouhard have handled numerous felony trials and are among the office’s most seasoned prosecutors.

Other high-ranking prosecutors who worked under O’Malley have left or are rumored to be eyeing the exit.

Veteran prosecutor Terry Wiley, the O’Malley-backed candidate who ran against Price in the November 2022 election, retired from the office after the election.

One early departure, according to sources, is Assistant District Attorney L.D. Louis, a 20-plus-year prosecutor. Louis is said to have joined the County Counsel’s Office, which oversees legal matters for the civilian side of the county. Louis was most recently the head of the DA’s mental health unit, specializing in policy as well as collaborative courts and alternatives to incarceration.

Top-floor prosecutors and inspectors, like Wiley and Chew, are at-will employees, meaning they could be dismissed without a reason. Virtually all prosecutors, except for assistant district attorneys, are represented by the Alameda County Prosecutors Association and cannot be terminated without cause. Prosecutors began organizing in 2018 and were formalized as a union two years later.

Any prosecutor placed on leave is entitled to a so-called Skelly hearing, which provides employees an opportunity to hear and defend themselves against the employer’s allegations.

In announcing her new leadership team last Friday, Price appointed retired Oakland police Capt. Eric Lewis as chief of inspectors and former Marin County Assistant District Attorney Otis Bruce Jr. and Royl L. Roberts, a Peralta Community College administrator who recently became the district’s general counsel after passing the state bar in July, as her two chief assistant district attorneys.

State and local officials on Tuesday began cleaning up from the half-dozen atmospheric rivers that have pummeled California since late December, killing at least 17 people and leaving 96,000 people under evacuation warnings or orders amid the risk of flooding and mudslides. Their work came amid a brief respite from the rain and the wind but with more strong storms expected to arrive later in the week.

Although none of the coming storms are forecast to be as big as the “bomb cyclone” that hit last week, residents have been warned to stay vigilant. While touring the storm and tide-ravaged community of Capitola on Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom cautioned that even a little rain could cause outsized effects due to heavily-saturated soils.

“The magnitude of this is not isolated to smaller communities, it is scaled across the largest state in our union,” Newsom said. “We’re soaked. This place is soaked. And now just more modest amount of precipitation could have as equal or greater impact in terms of the conditions on the ground.”

On Tuesday, nearly every corner of the state had felt the impacts of the recent atmospheric onslaught that caused flooding and myriad downed trees in Northern California, mudslides and a major evacuation in the Southern California community of Montecito and heavy snow across the length of the Sierra Nevada.

California Storms video: Hail in the Bay Area, rockslides, sinkholes and more

On the Central Coast, where some of the storm’s worst effects were felt, a 5-year-old boy died Monday after being swept away in a San Luis Obispo County creek, authorities said. A woman also drowned the same day after driving onto a mile-long section of Central Coast roadway that had been closed due to flooding, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Visiting the Santa Cruz coast, Newsom vowed to provide assistance to Capitola, where huge waves stoked from a “bomb cyclone” last week tore out a section of the historic Capitola Wharf and smashed and flooded a half-dozen beachfront Capitola Village restaurants.

“We’re not walking away,” Newsom said, standing on the town’s waterfront where generations of Bay Area residents have gone to frolic on the sand, dine and drink on seaside patios. From Dec. 31 through Sunday, heavy rains and a devastating tidal event caused at least $28 million in damages to public property across unincorporated Santa Cruz County, said Jason Hoppin, spokesman for Santa Cruz County. In addition, five buildings were red-tagged, and another 131 were deemed significantly damaged but repairable.

That doesn’t include any damage sustained Monday when the San Lorenzo River flooded its banks and sent water rushing into numerous buildings. Nor does it include a line of gusty storms to tear through the county early Tuesday morning, which prompted dozens of 911 calls from people reporting trees falling onto their houses..

Newsom gave no specifics regarding state aid to businesses Wednesday, nor details about funding for rebuilding the wharf. He also did not reveal whether the Seacliff Wharf — a state facility just down the coast that once led to a now-damaged cement-filled ship — would be repaired after damage from the storm. “All that will be determined,” Newsom said.

Around the Bay Area, the true extent of the recent storms began coming into focus Tuesday, even as thunderstorms dropped pea-sized hail and yet more rain.

In Santa Clara County, at least $24 million in damages to public property had been tallied by city and county officials through midday Tuesday — a figure that was expected to evolve as more assessments were completed, a county official said. Much of that tally included damage to roadways — more than a dozen of which remained closed midday Tuesday.

The heavy rains also caused dozens of sewage spills around the Bay Area and other parts of the state as sewage systems became overwhelmed by huge amounts of water pouring into the ground and seeping into pipes. Since New Year’s Eve, for example, at least 22 million gallons of “unauthorized discharges” occurred in the Bay Area, said Eileen White, executive officer for the San Francisco Bay Water Quality Control Board.

About 150 calls a day have streamed into the dispatch center for Bay Area Tree Specialists of late, said Michelle Reulman, the business’ office manager.

“This is a state of emergency,” said John Gill, owner of Majestic Tree Service, just moments after helping to clear a tree that fell on three vehicles and a house Wednesday off Bascom Avenue in San Jose. “You drive every five minutes, and there’s a tree down on a house or the street or the road or it’s flooded.”

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, a falling eucalyptus tree topped a 137-foot tall transmission tower in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood. The weight of the tower brought down three distribution poles as well as power lines and some transformers, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesperson Mayra Tostado said in an update posted to Twitter. As a result, about 2,100 customers lost power.

“We’ve brought in additional resources to be able to restore power as quickly as possible to our customers,” Tostado said. “We understand how disruptive it has been to be without power and we’re doing everything we can to turn the lights back on as quickly as possible.”

Tostado said the region saw winds up to 70 mph and 100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.

The South Bay took a big punch from Mother Nature today. @PGE4Me responded to an outage in San Jose’s Willow Glen due to a eucalyptus tree knocking down a 137-ft. tall transmission tower. With its weight, it pulled down power lines and poles connected to it. Here’s my report. pic.twitter.com/HJUJm9tqDA

— Mayra Tostado (@PGE_Mayra) January 11, 2023

Many of the trees were felled during an onslaught of thunderstorms Tuesday that knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across the Bay Area, while dropping between .25 and 1.25 inches of rain across most of the South Bay, the East Bay and the Peninsula. Much of the Santa Cruz mountains received between .66 and 1.4 inches of rain overnight, pushing three-day storm totals to between 6 and 8 inches of rain across much of the area.

As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, 24-hour precipitation totals around the Bay Area included 1.21 inches in San Francisco, 1.18 inches in Oakland, 1.11 inches in Concord,.41 inches in San Jose and .40 inches in Livermore, according to the weather service.

More than 40,000 PG&E customers were without power as of 5 p.m. Tuesday — the majority of them in the South Bay where more than 27,000 customers remained without electricity, according to the utility provider.

To the east across the Sierra Nevada, a remarkable run of snowfall continued to push the state’s snowpack higher — reaching 215% of its average for this date across the state, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The southern Sierra already has received more than it normally gets by April 1, while the northern Sierra is about 75% of the way to that mark.

Another .1 to .25 inches of rain is expected to fall over much of the Bay Area on Wednesday, with higher amounts forecasted to hit the North Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to the National Weather Service. Some brief showers may hit the region on Thursday or Friday, but the area should remain mostly dry under cloudy skies those days.

Many residents found themselves whiplashed from the see-sawing weather. In Soquel, near Santa Cruz, Roman Bodnarchuk wondered aloud at the next curveball from Mother Nature after a dramatic two weeks of joy and catastrophe.

Just after Christmas, he had finally succeeded in getting his war-refugee parents out of Ukraine — where they lived near a power station under frequent Russian bombardment — and to his rented house by Soquel Creek.

“It’s very stressful,” said Bodnarchuk, 30. “You can imagine how frustrating it was to leave the house when my mom is sick and having to deal with all these situations. Hopefully the house withstands all this damage.”

He couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread at viewing forecasts for additional rain in the coming week

“We’re very worried,” Bodnarchuk said. “It’s been difficult enough already.”

Rick Hurd, Julia Prodis Sulek, Jason Green and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The following totals from the National Weather Service are from Saturday, Jan. 7 — when rain began in the evening for most of the Bay Area — through 6 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 12. They are raw numbers, not yet checked for quality control.

The site of the greatest reading, Uvas Canyon, is at 1,100 feet elevation near the Casa Loma fire station, about 2 miles east of Loma Prieta.

Higher totals were reported to the south: Mining Ridge, at 3,288 feet elevation in Big Sur, had 21 inches.

Find the chart for the previous week of rain here.

Wind gusts hit 44 mph in Oakland and 38 mph in San Francisco, pulling down plenty of branches and, in some cases, toppling entire trees. According to a frequently updated Pacific Gas and Electric Company outage map, thousands of customers were without power during the late Sunday and early Monday morning hours.

It's going to get windier soon – Here's a look at the timing of strong winds coming thru overnight with strongest winds occurring between 12-8 am. Be cautious of downed trees and powerlines, especially given the saturated soils. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/pNnxhFO561

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 9, 2023

While dangers from high winds were expected to calm after the morning, moderate to heavy rains were forecast throughout the day. Forecasts showed between one-half and three-quarter inches of rain headed to San Jose and San Francisco on Monday afternoon, and as much as one inch in Walnut Creek.

Rainfall totals from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed nearly 0.95 inches in San Jose, 1.38 inches in Oakland and 1.44 inches in downtown San Francisco as of 12:45 p.m. Monday. Mt. Diablo had received two inches.

The winds were expected to slow gradually to mid-30 mph gusts by Wednesday, but the rain isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future. According to NWS predictions, the scattered rain bands could regroup overnight and give bigger downpours to certain areas, namely the Santa Cruz mountains and the coastline.

Get live Bay Area storm updates with details on evacuations, flooding and damage

Forecasts for Tuesday showed between one-quarter and one-half of an inch of rain in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, with a near-repeat prediction for Wednesday. Temperatures were expected to be consistently in the high 50s throughout the week, with lows in the high 40s.

NWS meteorologist Brayden Murdock called the upcoming rain systems weaker than what the Bay Area has seen in multple storms since Dec. 31, but said they’ll be “consistent.”

“There’s still really good chances of rain throughout our seven-day forecast,” he said.

The influx of downpours and weather-related damages are something that Bay Area residents perhaps weren’t prepared for since the region simply hasn’t seen a string of systems like this in some time, Murdock said. He added that the recent systems have been reminiscent of the 2017 events which saw massive flooding in Santa Clara County.

“We have been on quite the dry pattern,” Murdock said. “I think a lot of people got used to that. As far as our tolerance for rain goes, this has been sticking out like a sore thumb.”

Saturated soils from prior storms increased chances of flooding near several Bay Area rivers and creeks. In an early Monday morning bulletin, the NWS warned of flood dangers at the Alameda Creek near Niles, Arroyo de la Laguna at Verona, Guadalupe River above Highway 101 in San Jose, Coyote Creek above Highway 237 in Milpitas and in Edenvale, Pacheco Creek near Dunneville and the San Lorenzo River.

Late Monday morning, officials closed southbound lanes of Highway 101 in Gilroy due to flooding near the Mesa Road exit.

The San Lorenzo River reached flood stage before dawn Monday morning, with water just inches from the bottom of two bridges, including the historic Covered Bridge. County officials ordered in the Felton Grove neighborhood near the Covered Bridge and the Paradise Park area down river near Santa Cruz.

In downtown Felton, floodwater closed the main intersection at Mount Hermon and Graham Hill roads, trapping a motorist from Ben Lomond who had to have rescue crews push her car out of the water to safety.

“I saw other cars making it through there,” explained motorist Julie Armstrong, 76, from Ben Lomond, conceding that in hindsight, “I shouldn’t have done that!”

San Lorenzo River heading into downtown Santa Cruz looks like the Amazon, but rain has stopped and isn’t forecast to resume till tonight pic.twitter.com/BWzuqrRQi5

— EthanBaron (@ethanbaron) January 9, 2023

Several slides and fallen trees caused closures on Santa Cruz County highways Monday morning. A slide on southbound State Route 17 south of Glenwood Drive forced a road closure, per California Highway Patrol.

Please avoid the area https://t.co/UuK4dcZ82k

— CHP Santa Cruz (@CHPscrz) January 9, 2023

Also closed were Highway 9 and Holiday Lane near Highlands County Park in Ben Lomond after a slide, and one lane of Highway 1 south of River Street near downtown Santa Cruz, where debris in the San Lorenzo River was trapped under the roadway.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order for the lower-lying areas near Soquel Creek throughout the county. The Capitola Police Department ordered evacuations in the low-lying residences along lower Riverview and Capitola Village, which was heavily damaged after a storm last week. Evacuation orders and warnings were also issued for much of eastern portion of the town of Watsonville.

With the San Lorenzo River at flood stage, evacuations have begun in the Felton Grove and Paradise Park areas. Soquel Creek has reached action stage. Check your zone at https://t.co/s5GvnC3vMN.

— Santa Cruz County (@sccounty) January 9, 2023

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order Monday morning for low-lying areas of the Carmel River near Carmel-by-the-Sea. Carmel River Elementary School and Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo are both located within the mandatory evacuation zones.

The county opened an emergency shelter for evacuated residents in the Monterey County Fairgrounds located at 2004 Fairground Road.

Storm warnings were enough to prompt a response from the White House. Late Sunday night, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in the State of California, ordering federal assistance to assist with response efforts for damage resulting from storms. The declaration authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in 17 California counties, including San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz.

The dogs were found inside a home in North Livermore after police became aware of their living conditions.

Police said conditions inside the home were filthy and that many of the dogs were found in crates with no food or water.

Animal services officers from Livermore and Pleasanton, along with a community service specialist from Livermore, determined that the man who owned the home was hoarding the dogs and was unable to care for them, authorities said.

The homeowner’s name was not released. Police said the case was under review by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

The dogs were ultimately transported to the East County Animal Shelter in Dublin. At the shelter, the dogs were vaccinated, had their nails trimmed and were placed in clean cages.

One dog needed emergency medical treatment; that animal has already been placed in a new home. None of the dogs have died, authorities said Friday.

Fifteen dogs are at the Oakland Animal Shelter, 12 are at the the Dublin SPCA and approximately 10 are at the Valley Humane Society. Twelve dogs remain at the East County Animal Shelter.

Anyone interested in adopting one of the dogs or making a financial donation toward their care may call the East County Animal shelter at 925-803-7040, Oakland Animal Services at 510-535-5602, East Bay SPCA at 925-479-9670, and Valley Human Society at 925-426-8656.

The following totals from the National Weather Service are from Dec. 30 through 6 a.m. Friday, Jan. 6. They are raw numbers, not yet checked for quality control.

The site of the greatest total, Scott Creek, is at 2,300 feet elevation near Empire Grade, south of Big Basin State Park.

Utility crews raced to restore power to large chunks of the Bay Area as officials in the region’s urban centers reported hundreds of downed trees and numerous washed-out roads from the latest powerful atmospheric river to roar ashore this week. To the west — most notably in Capitola and Rio del Mar along the Santa Cruz coast — one of the largest storm surges in recent memory caused significant damage to waterfront businesses and tourist attractions.

The damage assessments came as meteorologists warned of more rain in the forecast over the next several days, with a parade of storms marching across the Pacific Ocean toward Northern California promising to further inundate the Bay Area this weekend and early next week.

“Be ready for more heavy rainfall with high probability of flooding, especially as we go into early next week,” said Rick Canepa, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “Just be prepared, try to do as much storm prep as you can. I know it’s a bit relentless.”

Unlike previous systems to hit the region over the last couple of weeks, the storm that hit Wednesday and Thursday brought punishing winds that gusted to 101 mph in central Marin County on Wednesday evening. In Oakland and San Francisco, the wind gusts of about 60 mph tore through each city — dislodging drought-weakened trees into power lines and onto roadways.

Across the state, some 440,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers lost power during the storm, the utility provider announced. By Thursday afternoon, 115,000 people remained in the dark, a figure that was expected to drop to 75,000 by the end of the day. In the Bay Area, more than 66,000 people remained without power at 2 p.m. Thursday, including about 24,000 people in the North Bay and 17,000 people in the Peninsula. Another 15,000 people remained in the dark in the East Bay, while nearly 8,000 people were left without power in the South Bay. About 2,200 people were without power in San Francisco.

Authorities in the North Bay blamed the storm for two fatalities, one of them a toddler. The 2-year-old boy, who has not been identified, died in the Sonoma County town of Occidental on Wednesday night after a tree fell into a mobile home, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Juan Valencia said Thursday.

The boy was sitting on the couch in the living room at about 5:15 a.m. when he was crushed, Valencia said. Fire paramedics tried to revive the child with CPR and other live-saving efforts, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 19-year-old woman also died Wednesday morning when her vehicle hydroplaned on a standing patch of water and slammed into a pole in Fairfield, local authorities said.

The potent system was fueled by a “bomb cyclone” — a swirling area of intense low pressure that churned in the Pacific before slamming into the West Coast, sending a swell of moisture into California that was accompanied by dangerously strong winds.

The storm dropped 4 to 6 inches of rain in the Santa Cruz Mountains and 1 to 2 inches across much of the rest of the Bay Area, including San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco.

Across the Peninsula, the East Bay and the South Bay, local emergency response officials voiced relief that their most dire fears about the storm failed to materialize. Even so, they raced to make repairs ahead of the next deluge.

“Overall, we’ve fared pretty well,” said Leslie Arroyo, a spokesperson for the City of South San Francisco, after the community largely endured only downed trees and a toppled gas station canopy. “We’re pleased with how things have been very minimal.”

In East Palo Alto, workers drained water from the large subterranean garage at the 160-unit Woodland Park Apartments, where cars flooded up to their wheel wells Saturday. Shoveling deep mud from an adjacent sidewalk, one worker, who asked not to be identified, said that “it’s a lot of work — it’s extensive.”

Almost 300 trees fell in San Francisco over a 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. Thursday, according to Department of Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon. In the West Portal neighborhood, one of those trees knocked down 500 feet of bus lines, forcing riders to be rerouted while crews worked to restore service.

In East Oakland, a roughly 40-foot section of a eucalyptus tree fell on a two-story, eight-unit apartment complex Wednesday evening at the end of Lynde Street, along Peralta Creek. The hole allowed rain to pour in and flood the homes, forcing the complex to be evacuated.

As daylight broke Thursday, Victoria James marveled at how her family narrowly avoided tragedy. A 10-year resident of the building, James recalled being with six other members of her family in their second-floor unit when they felt a strong shaking and saw the lights go out.

“We thought it was a 6.9 earthquake,” said James, 39, after getting her first daylight look at the damage. “We had to leave right away because the tree was going to block the door. We left with what was on our backs.”

James, like several of her other neighbors, had moved to a local hotel with hotel with her family — and she shuddered at how they narrowly avoided tragedy.

“These trees should have been cut down a long time ago,” James said. She and another decade-long resident, Patty Bigornia, voiced concerns that local officials did not do enough to mitigate the tree risk, despite residents having raised concerns about it in the past.

“I’m just glad nobody was hurt,” said Bigornia, 54. “But this was 100% preventable.”

Several roads remained washed out or closed due to debris Thursday, including nearly a dozen in Santa Clara County.

The next round of rain should arrive late Friday evening, dropping light to moderate rain through the weekend, said Canepa. A second, more powerful atmospheric river should arrive late Sunday night — bringing even more potential for flooding to the waterlogged Bay Area.

“Everything is saturated. The soils can’t really handle hardly any more,” Canepa said.

Lisa Krieger and Gabriel Greschler contributed to this report.