The new law is intended to ensure that seniors and other adults — in particular those who rely on cannabis for medicinal reasons — have access marijuana vaping products. Proposed by Supervisor Diane Burgis, the ordinance allows permitted cannabis retailers located in unincorporated areas to sell and deliver the products.

The ordinance passed 3-2 with supervisors Federal Glover and Candace Anderson voting no.

During the first reading of the ordinance on Dec. 6, Burgis said the motivation behind the revised ordinance was that the 2019 law hurt seniors and other adults who rely on cannabis vaping products for both recreational and medical reasons. In particular, it affected homebound seniors in unincorporated areas, she said.

“What we’re trying to do by having policies here in Contra Costa County is to give people a way to access safe products,” Burgis said.

At the December meeting, both Glover and Anderson voted against the ordinance, saying it would send mixed messages to the public and betray an effort led by Contra Costa youth who wanted the ban in the first place.

“We clearly took a leadership position back in 2019 when we had a number of our students throughout this county that came before us and asked for the leadership to put this ban in place,” Glover said. “And I’m not going to turn away from that. I think it’s important that that we listen to our youth when they cry out and ask for this help.”

Glover said there is no evidence “that vaping does not cause problems to individuals” and partially lifting the ban would send “false messages or confusing messages to our public that it’s OK to do this this while at the same time saying that we want to prevent it.”

On Tuesday, groups advocating for cannabis access told the Board of Supervisors that banning pot vape products has created an illicit black market for the product and disproportionately affected vulnerable populations who rely on cannabis primarily for medical reasons.

Renee Lee, a resident of the retirement community of Rossmoor who runs an organization with a mission to help seniors legally access and safety use cannabis, said the majority of medicinal cannabis users in the unincorporated community near Walnut Creek prefer vaping.

“I am so happy,” Lee said after Tuesday’s vote. “It’s like a big weight off my shoulders … (the ordinance) had been very unfair.”

Sarah Armstrong of American for Safe Access, the country’s largest and oldest advocacy organization for medical cannabis patients, said forcing people to travel medicinal marijuana “often stimulates a black market because they simply cannot go to the nearest dispensary if they don’t have one near them.”

Before the vote, Burgis emphasized that the ordinance makes no change to the current ban of tobacco and flavored tobacco vaping products; nor does it allow for new dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

“This does allow the sale of one particular set of cannabis products, which are already sold in many cities of Contra Costa County and are available to purchase in nearly every other part of the state that has approved cannabis retail sales,” she said.

In passing the ordinance, the board also directed Contra Costa Health Services to begin working on an awareness program about the dangers of youth cannabis vaping. Supervisor John Gioia said creation of such a program was a major factor in his decision to support the new legislation.

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 latest atmospheric river-fed storm is expected to pack damaging winds and drop several more inches of rain over much of the Bay Area — a double-whammy that forecasters say should peak Monday morning and linger through Tuesday. Even more storms are forecast to make landfall beginning later this week — threatening to further saturate soils during one of the Bay Area’s most waterlogged stretches in recent years.

On Sunday afternoon, Gov. Gavin Newsom implored Californians to avoid driving through flooded roadways and to prepare for even more water in the near future — noting that 12 people had died over the last week and a half due to storms across the state.

“Use your common sense,” Newsom said at a press conference. “Don’t test fate… just a foot of water and your car’s floating. So it’s really important that people are mindful, and again, just use their common sense.”

The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for areas along the Guadalupe River above the Almaden Expressway in San Jose. The river is expected to reach its flood state of 9.5 feet by 9 a.m. Monday before cresting at 11.5 feet at about 4 p.m. that day.

A flood watch also exists through Tuesday for almost the entire Bay Area. Alameda Creek near Niles Canyon and Sunol could reach its flood stage of 9 feet on Monday morning before cresting that afternoon, just shy of its 14-foot, 9-inch record. Also at risk of topping their banks were Arroyo de la Laguna at Verona in Alameda County and the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County.

On Sunday afternoon, Santa Clara County officials issued evacuation warnings — essentially, advisements to be prepared to leave a moment’s notice — to people living in the watershed areas of the Uvas Reservoir and Pacheco Pass River Basin, due to flooding concerns. The warnings are impacting roughly 1,600 people, according to the county.

“This is going to be dangerous,” said Brayden Murdock, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Updated forecast rainfall totals for round 2, expected to begin tonight between 10 pm and midnight. The heaviest rain will occur between 4 am and 4 pm Monday. Slight lowering of totals from the Bay Area northward and southern valleys. More details in follow up tweet.#CAwx

1/x pic.twitter.com/zs2HzaehAH

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 8, 2023

Standing under a break in the clouds on Sunday in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, Becky Luong expressed fatigue at the unrelenting pace of storms. Her home’s garage in the Portola neighborhood was flooded with about an inch of water during Wednesday’s storm — ruining several pairs of shoes stored down there and leaving damaged a few bags of concrete.

“I’ve never experienced such a big storm like this,” said Luong, who has lived in the city for close to three decades. “It is the wind that makes it worse. This is different. I got scared.”

“I’m tired,” she added, about the recent wet weather. “I’m so grateful to see the sun today.”

Nearby, Nick Bulley waited in line for workers to fill his car with sandbags to protect his house in the hilly Twin Peaks neighborhood. The backyard and first floor of his newly renovated home were flooded during the New Year’s Eve storm with an inch of water, likely causing thousands of dollars in damage. On Sunday, he ran a dehumidifier to suck up all the moisture and limit the cost of repairs.

“This was just an unusual event,” Bulley said. “We weren’t prepared. We didn’t have sandbags. Now we’re making sure we have something to at least toss in front of the doors.”

The heaviest downpours should begin to subside by midday Monday, Murdock said, though chances for additional precipitation should linger through Tuesday. Most of the Bay Area — including San Francisco and Oakland — could see 2 to 3 inches of rain by Tuesday, the weather service said. San Jose is expected to see a little more than 2 inches from this storm.

The heaviest rainfall should fall over the waterlogged Santa Cruz Mountains, where 5 to 7 inches of rain is expected, with a few places seeing as much as 8 inches. To the south, the Santa Lucia Mountains along the Big Sur coast could see 8 to 12 inches of rain in some spots.

Winds of 25 to 35 mph are expected across much of the Bay Area’s lower-lying regions, with gusts potentially hitting 60 mph, the National Weather Service said while issuing a high wind warning. Along the coast and the Bay Area’s peaks, forecasters are expecting winds of 35 to 50 mph and gusts of up to 80 mph.

“This is also going to be a wind event,” said Murdock, adding that “when you do have strong winds after seeing plenty of moisture in the soil, you can see trees fall.”

The storm marks the latest atmospheric river to drench Northern California over the last couple of weeks, whipsawing the region from one of its driest three-year runs in recorded history to a state of perpetual flood risk. Oakland, for example, has received 15.84 inches of rain since Dec. 1 — almost all of it in the last two weeks. That’s more than two-thirds of the 22.89 inches of rain it normally gets in a calendar year.

Still, even though the recent wet weather has begun to alleviate drought conditions across Northern California, experts say even more moisture is needed to put an end the region’s historic drought. Water levels at some of the state’s largest reservoirs — including Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville and Trinity Lake — remain below historical averages for this time of year, even though some have started to tick upward in recent weeks.

He said that federal resources have been mobilized to help the National Weather Service’s forecasts. Five Air Force C-130s and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft are flying over the Pacific Ocean – reaching as far as Hawaii – to gather data on the coming storms.

“These next storms are really going to start seeing some flood stages be reached,” said Anderson, during a call with reporters Saturday. “There’s a lot to keep an eye on and a lot to track.”

For more on the latest emergency warnings, go to aware.zonehaven.com.

High Wind Warning has been issued for our region starting tonight at 8 PM into Monday 4 PM. Expect southerly winds near 20 to 35 mph with gust up to 60 mph in the valley locations and 35 to 50 mph with gust up 80 mph along the coast and highest peaks. #CAwx #highwind pic.twitter.com/VbzaXV22ez

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 8, 2023

Parts of the Santa Cruz County city are under a flood advisory, and Rodrigues remembered well the damage caused by past floods in the area and wanted to make sure his community is ready.

“We’re sort of a meeting place for people when they talk about what’s going on in other parts of the neighborhood,” Rodrigues said. “Obviously there’s a lot of worried people.”

As yet another winter storm rolled into the rain-soaked greater Bay Area this weekend, the region again braced for dangerous winds and mudslides, followed by potentially widespread flooding early next week when a more powerful atmospheric river weather pattern was expected to arrive.

Rivers and creeks will be at the greatest risk of cresting their banks Monday and into Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Severe flooding in other low-lying areas also is a concern then as the heaviest rains are set to fall.

“If you know of areas that saw flooding” from recent storms, said weather service meteorologist Brayden Murdock, “odds are with Monday’s system, you’re going to be seeing that again.”

Saturday’s rains began pouring over the North Bay in the morning before making their way south in the afternoon through the Bay Area and into Santa Cruz and Monterey, amid ominous signs of what lies ahead.

ABC meteorologist Drew Tuma reported sightings based on observer photos of asperitas clouds, a distinctive, unusual and only recently classified cloud formation with an appearance of rippling waves often associated with unstable weather.

If you’re wondering what the wavy clouds are moving through the Bay Area they are Asperitas Clouds. Not a very common cloud to see, indicates an unstable atmosphere, can be quite turbulent to fly through. https://t.co/QjtxbwJjv9

— Drew Tuma (@DrewTumaABC7) January 7, 2023

And climate scientist Daniel Swain reported unusual organized thunderstorm clusters on satellite imagery over the Pacific Ocean heading toward California and said there “could be quite a lot of thunderstorm activity.”

An unusual feature conspicuous on satellite imagery this morning over Pacific west of CA: multiple, seemingly organized thunderstorm clusters over the ocean headed eastward toward California (& not just along front). Will be interesting to see how this evolves later today. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/SrWTAolufh

— Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) January 7, 2023

Even before the next storm hits, booming wind gusts of up to 60 mph threaten to topple trees and take out power lines across the region this weekend.

Shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday, Alameda County firefighters rescued someone who had been trapped in a home on Sandy Road in Castro Valley after a large eucalyptus tree fell on it. The person was transported to a nearby hospital to be treated for injuries, while two adults and four children also were displaced.

At 3:53PM, ACFD responded to an EMS call that was upgraded to a rescue due to a large eucalyptus tree that fell on a home on Sandy Rd in Castro Valley. FF’s rescued 1 person who was trapped inside the home and then transported to a nearby hospital to be treated for injuries. Cont pic.twitter.com/n6hZASamjg

— Alameda County Fire (@AlamedaCoFire) January 8, 2023

In Palo Alto, nearly 700 PG&E customers from Crescent Park to the St. Francis area lost power due to the storm, with power expected to be restored by midnight, Palo Alto police reported. Elsewhere, the utility was dealing with reports of minor power outages across the Bay Area, mostly affecting fewer than 50 customers.

And after a week of relentless rainfall, mudslides and debris flows are a top concern, especially in areas burned by wildfires in recent years. A series of recent storms across California already have knocked out power to thousands, flooded streets, battered the coastline and caused at least six deaths. The storms won’t be enough to officially end the state’s ongoing drought but they have helped.

Across the greater Bay Area on Saturday, residents and officials prepared for the punishing weather ahead.

In the North Bay, Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman was helping mobile home residents near the Russian River pack up their trailers as the water rose higher.

“People who live here know what to expect, and they’re getting ready for it,” said Baxman.

Not far away along the coast, Sonoma County opened a community support center at Fort Ross State Historic Park, 19005 Coast Highway in Jenner. The county also has an emergency shelter at the E.C. Kraft Building at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa for up to 60 people, county officials said.

Saturday’s storm was expected to bring half an inch to 2 inches of rain for most of the Bay Area and up to 4 inches in the mountains. The North Bay was expected to be the wettest, with between 4 to 6 inches of rain. Meanwhile, wind gusts throughout the region were forecast to reach up to 60 mph, and even higher at mountain peaks.

After a brief dry spell Sunday afternoon, the more potent second storm is set to arrive later that night and last through Tuesday morning, dumping between 2 and 6 inches across the Bay Area and up to 8 inches in higher elevations.

Even San Jose could see about 2 inches of rain in the coming days, unusual for an area that’s generally in the rain shadow of the Santa Cruz Mountains, while Big Sur could get upwards of 11 inches of rain at its highest peaks.

As the rain comes down harder, the threat of floods and mudslides should increase across the region. And major waterways will be at risk of overflowing.

Some creeks and rivers the weather service highlighted for potential flooding include the Russian River near Guerneville; Alameda Creek near Niles Canyon and Sunol, and Arroyo de la Laguna at Verona in Alameda County; and Coyote Creek at Milpitas and at Edenvale, and Pacheco Creek near Dunneville in the South Bay. The San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County is also at risk of overflowing.

Mandatory evacuation orders are possible in those areas and others at risk of flooding and mudflows.

In Richmond, Mayor Tom Butt said 15 homes in the Seacliff neighborhood are still under evacuation due to mudslide concerns. He said there were no plans for additional evacuation orders but the city would continue monitoring the storm.

“All quiet for a day or so — nothing I can do to stop it,” he said.

“One of the number one things for people to do is to make sure they are signed up for their county alerts,” Bingaman said. “That is going to be the best way to get the info that’s pertinent to them.”

Staff writer Aldo Toledo and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

“Tuesday is the last day to make preparations,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Ryan Walbrun. “Take advantage of that.”

The Wednesday storm and the rain coming afterward, he said, could end up competing with rainfall in 2017 that hit San Jose particularly hard and caused widespread damages and emergency evacuations. The agency is keeping a watchful eye on multiple areas across the region for flooding, specifically locations in and around the East Bay’s Alameda Creek, Santa Clara County’s Coyote Creek, San Benito County’s Pacheco Creek, the Peninsula’s San Francisquito Creek, Santa Cruz County’s San Lorenzo Creek, and Sonoma County and Mendocino County’s Russian River.

Walbrun said the last couple of days of wet weather have created a perfect opportunity for widespread flooding, since soil  across the region is already saturated with water, giving falling rain nowhere to go.

“We’re running out of places to push the water right now,” he said. On Monday, a flood watch was issued for the entire region through Thursday — and NWS is warning that the storm could lead to possible loss of life.

The moisture-rich and loose soil combined with the high winds — which are expected to reach 35 to 55 miles per hour — will create hazardous conditions for falling trees and downed power lines. Rain amounts will vary across the region, from 1 to 3 inches in the lower-lying areas to up to 10 inches in the mountains.

The most extreme weather will come late Wednesday evening into early Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Another spate of rain will hit during the weekend, the agency said.

Authorities are recommending that Bay Area residents make plans for power outages and stock up on sandbags if their property is particularly prone to flooding. Residents are also being urged to not travel on Wednesday and Thursday since roadways will likely experience flooding. Local health authorities are also warning about the health risks posed by flood waters, which can create a soupy mess of toxic substances causing disease.

“Floodwater can contain all kinds of dangerous materials, and it is obviously best to avoid any contact with the water,” said San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow in a Sunday press release. “Raw sewage, animal waste, toxic substances, chemical compounds, fungus, bacteria – things you would rather avoid – may be in the water, and you need to take precautions to avoid illness or injury.”

On Monday, Bay Area residents began making preparations for the upcoming storm.

At the City Corporation Yard in Redwood City, residents shoveled sand into bags in hopes of avoiding flooding. Some were pummeled with rain during New Year’s Eve as water inundated yards and in some cases, entered homes.

“We were sweeping water (out of our garage),” said longtime Redwood City resident Linda Marsh. “We were hammered. … My side of the street was like a river.” Marsh said she lined her home with sandbags before last week’s storm but the “old, dead leaky bags” didn’t stand a chance. About two inches of water flooded her garage. On Monday, she made sure to restock on fresh bags ahead of the new storm.

Watch: Video shows how to protect your home from flooding and read other flood prep tips

John Potter, who has lived in his current Redwood City home for about one and a half years and was also collecting sandbags, says water was flowing in his backyard after last week’s storm. None of it entered the home, luckily, but he’s not taking any chances with the upcoming rainfall.

Over in Oakland, the staff at the city’s zoo was working “around the clock” to prepare for Wednesday’s storm. The zoo, in the East Oakland hills, is particularly prone to flooding and was forced to close through at least Jan. 17 because of an enormous sinkhole at the site’s entrance that opened after Saturday’s storm.

“It’s been devastating,” said the zoo’s CEO, Nik Dehejia, who estimates the combined damages and closure could reach up to $1 million in lost revenue. “We’re trying to stay ahead of it.”

Dehejia said many of the animals have been brought inside and away from the site’s numerous eucalyptus trees — about half a dozen of which have fallen over the last couple of days. Staff members are sweeping up mud covering the zoo’s walkways, putting barricades in place to prevent water from reaching certain areas, and placing straw and sandbags in flood-prone spots.

“We are resilient,” Dehejia said. “We will get through this.”

Though residents and emergency personnel had their minds on the upcoming storm, flooding from the heavy rains on New Year’s Eve that brought San Francisco and Oakland some of their highest one-day rain totals ever was still causing mayhem across the region.

In the East Bay, both lanes on Highway 84 from Fremont to Sunol through Niles Canyon remain closed — and are not expected to reopen until Friday evening.

In Contra Costa County, Marsh Creek Road is closed between Deer Valley Road and Morgan Territory Road because of falling rocks and mudslides, according to its public works department. Deer Valley Road is also closed to all traffic between Briones Valley Road and Marsh Creek Road because of a sinkhole. Spokesperson Kelly Kalfsbeek said there is as yet no expected date for these roads to reopen.

In Sacramento, authorities were making rescue attempts after New Year’s Eve sparked evacuations, breached levees and closed off roads, according to the Sacramento Bee. By Monday morning, Highway 99 was able to open and water levels began to recede.

Both the National Weather Service and U.S. Geological Survey have found that soil saturation is expected to set off a domino effect that leads to an elevated risk of shallow landslides, particularly on Saturday.

“You can’t just keep adding water to the soils when the soils are full,” said Brian Garcia, a meteorologist at the Bay Area’s National Weather Service station in Monterey. “That becomes runoff, putting more water in rivers, creeks and streams and in the watershed. We’re going to see higher rises than what we saw in the last system.”

The region got an early glimpse of the coming rains Thursday when residents woke up to wet and rainy conditions following a short respite Wednesday that saw dry and sunny weather for most of the region.

Still, even after a morning of gray skies and scattered showers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s rainfall survey showed much of the Bay Area got no more than a third of an inch of rain Thursday.

As of 4 p.m., 24-hour precipitation totals included .39 inches in San Francisco, .26 inches in Oakland, .22 inches in Concord and Gilroy, .16 inches in Fremont and .15 inches in Redwood City, according to the National Weather Service.

The stormy conditions are all but certain to carry into the start of 2023, with the weather service’s seven-day forecast showing rain in most of the area’s major population centers.

A flood watch was set to take effect Friday evening and extend through Saturday for the entire Bay Area. The intensity of the storm coming into the region, forecasters say, is fueled by a sub-tropical patch of moisture and warm air coming from Hawaii combined with cold air from the Pacific Northwest.

The predicted shallow landslides will push mud onto a variety of inopportune locations, including roads, farmland and, in some instances, homes, Garcia said. That’s not to mention that trees, now rooted in saturated soil, will be more vulnerable to toppling even in lighter winds far weaker than what usually would bring them down.

Generally, Garcia said, residents can anticipate standing water in low-lying areas and flood plains throughout the Bay Area, from Livermore to San Francisco.

“All those places will be soggy and boggy,” he said.

In San Jose, the incoming consecutive storms evoked memories of the infamous President’s Day weekend flooding of 2017 that saw Coyote Creek spill out of its banks and submerge several neighborhoods in the central part of the city. The city’s worst flood since 1997 caused an estimated $100 million in damage and the emergency evacuation of 14,000 people who lived near Coyote Creek, one of two major bodies of water — along with the Guadalupe River — that flow through San Jose. The neighborhoods of Rock Springs, Naglee Park and several mobile home parks between Old Oakland Road and Coyote Creek were the hardest hit.

That flood occurred after a series of large atmospheric river storms, much like what’s expected this weekend — but Garcia said he does not expect anything approaching that severity.

“If the 2017 storm was a 10 out of 10, we’re probably looking at a 4 out of 10,” he said.

Garcia said rivers will swell, smaller rivers could overflow and that “some storm drains will not be able to keep up and flood some roads” due to the weekend storms, but there are no major flooding threats on waterways such as the Guadalupe and Coyote Creek.

That risk has been alleviated in part because, in the wake of the 2017 flooding, the Santa Clara Valley Water District was ordered by federal regulators to rebuild Anderson Dam and ensure that it holds up in a major earthquake. While the project won’t be finished until 2030, the construction work required that the dam’s water level be significantly lowered.

Floodwalls, berms and new levees along Coyote Creek have also been in the works since the disaster.

But while a major flood event is unlikely, Garcia noted that unhoused populations already vulnerable to weather events face additional risks.

“The area has at least 9,000 unhoused individuals, and a lot of them live in riverbeds,” he said. “The potential need for swift water rescues on New Year’s Eve, that goes up.”

On Thursday, activist Shaunn Cartwright with the Unhoused Response Group was busy warning people in San Jose about the potential for rising water while also passing out tents, tarps and winter clothing to help people stay warm and dry.

She said she is “absolutely” worried about the toll the coming storm will take on encampments along the Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek.

“What if we don’t tell the right camp and they’re the one that gets flooded and somebody dies?” she asked. “You feel an immense amount of pressure.”

While the general advisory from authorities is to stay indoors and wait out the storms, Garcia said those who do have to venture out in the rain should heed simple directives.

“Take a big dose of patience with you through this system if you have to go out,” he said. “If you see a flooded road, it’s not worth it (to drive through).”

Staff writers Marisa Kendall and Jason Green contributed to this report.

“This first one is opening the storm door for us,” said NWS Meteorologist Cindy Palmer.

Residents were put on alert Tuesday after the National Weather Service recorded winds upward of 40 mph throughout the greater Bay Area, and a flood watch was issued based on predictions of as much as four inches of rain in some areas.

The flood watch was accompanied by a flood advisory, which is less severe, for more inland areas. Commuters and roadside crews grappled with minor flooding caused by drainage issues, but no major incidents were reported in the area Tuesday.

The latest storm moved in from Guam and matches the characteristics of a “Pineapple Express,” in which rain and winds spare the area from freezing, keeping temperatures in a moderate range spanning the low 40s and upper 50s.

Palmer said the storm moved in faster than expected, which will result in a brief respite from the rain in the first half of Wednesday before a new storm system arrives in the evening. Steady rain is forecasted for Thursday and Friday, and yet another system is predicted to arrive between Saturday and Sunday.

“We are looking at wet weather continuing on New Year’s Day,” Palmer said. “We have several systems lined up.”

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, 24-hour precipitation totals included 2.43 inches in Oakland, 1.9 inches in San Francisco, 1.59 inches in Gilroy, 1.58 inches in Redwood City, 1.43 inches in Livermore, 1.23 inches in Concord and .75 inches in San Jose, according to the National Weather Service. Kentfield in Marin County was among the wettest locations in the region, recording 4.71 inches during that period.

Palmer added that because of the consecutive storm systems, the water falling in the Bay Area has a chance to help alleviate water shortages: “At this point in time, we’re looking at good beneficial rain.”

San Jose and the surrounding region, as well as coastal cities in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties and San Francisco anticipated some flooding, but the most notable flooding involved creeks in Sonoma County. However, those rises in water levels had mostly eased by late Tuesday morning.

“Other flooding we’ve seen has been the CHP reporting at onramps and offramps, anywhere storm drains were clogged,” Palmer said. “Thankfully it’s been minor flooding, nuisance flooding.”

Traffic delays were not widespread in the Tuesday commute, though that was likely influenced by lower overall commute volume typically seen between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Meanwhile, delays were expected to continue for air travelers trying to leave and arrive in the Bay Area, with thousands of cancellations nationwide, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. Those cancellation figures were largely influenced by Southwest Airlines; nationally, the carrier had cancelled more than 2,600 flights as of evening, or 65% of its total flights for the day.

It was not clear how much weather issues had contributed to the thousands of Southwest cancellations.

In the Lake Tahoe region, heavy snowfall of between 3 and 10 inches was predicted, but in areas above 7,000 feet, the yield could approach a foot or more. A winter storm warning was in effect through at least late Wednesday morning, and road travel to the area will entail chain controls and possible delays.

The Tahoe Daily Snow report on OpenSnow paralleled Palmer’s rain prediction in the Bay Area, with “strong winds and heavy rain and snow … becoming all snow on the mountains through the day and to lake level by Tuesday night,” with a break Wednesday, followed by storms during the weekend and then next week.

Forecaster Bryan Allegretto, who produces the snow report, said the most recent storm has melted significant amounts of snow at the base of resorts and lakeside areas nestled below 7,000 feet, though the snowpack above 8,000 feet is likely high enough to the rest of the ski season.

Wednesday and part of Thursday will be good for the slopes, he said, but he warned that most of Friday and Saturday will not be viable for a lot of skiers and snowboarders in part due to a strong storm expected to bring winds of up to 100 mph at the peaks.

“You get a nice day Wednesday, an unsettled Thursday, Friday and Saturday being two days of snow turning to rain, then rain back to snow,” Allegretto said.

Saturday evening — when a fireworks show is planned for the area — is expected to be clear, and Allegretto said Sunday should be sunny and ideal for skiing before things turn on Monday. It has made planning for the coming weekend, which marks the end of the holiday season, a challenging prospect.

Travelers to Tahoe “might be thinking, ‘Should we stay an extra day?’” Allegretto said, “but if you stay an extra day, you could be stuck in another storm.”

Staff writer Jason Green contributed to this report.

The number of COVID patients in Bay Area hospitals reached 940 on Wednesday, just a few beds shy of the August 2021 peak when the delta variant of the virus was surging. We’re still nowhere near the two biggest spikes — 2,028 COVID patients in the pandemic’s first winter in January 2021 and 1,914 last January during the omicron wave.

But this year has its own twist.

“Emergency rooms are packed,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UCSF professor of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases.

And it’s not just COVID that is crowding ERs and filling hospital beds. While fewer COVID patients are seriously ill from the virus compared to previous winters, the resurgence of other viruses such as influenza and RSV are combining forces and making it trickier for all of us — and our doctors — to know why we’re feeling so rotten.

“Back in the old days, sure people were sicker, but it was simpler algorithmically” to know it was COVID, Chin-Hong said. Now diagnosis and treatment are a more complicated equation, with so many viruses spreading.

This week, 12 public health directors in the larger Bay Area joined to encourage residents to take precautions and help “ease the burden on local health systems.” They recommend five basic steps: Get vaccinated against flu and COVID, stay home if you are sick, wear a mask in indoor public places, get tested if you feel sick, and get treatment if you are.

Limited space isn’t the only challenge health care facilities are struggling with. Chin-Hong said high rates of illness among staff and a current shortage of Tamiflu, used to treat the flu, are contributing to the challenges.

“For every patient that’s admitted to the hospital,” said Dr. Robert Rodriguez, professor of emergency medicine at UCSF and attending physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, “we’re probably seeing another three people who don’t get admitted.” And with emergency rooms having to board admitted patients until space is freed up in the hospital, “that backs us up and inhibits our ability to see patients,” he said.

Suzanne Leigh, spokesperson for UCSF, said the number of COVID patients has doubled to 38 since Nov. 1, but it’s lower than it was on Aug. 1. Just under half of current COVID-positive patients are hospitalized because of their infection, a big difference from early in the pandemic. The rest have what’s considered incidental COVID, meaning they were admitted for other reasons and also tested positive for the virus.

Dr. Niraj Sehgal, chief medical officer for Stanford Healthcare, said over the past week Stanford has 25-35 patients with COVID, 10-15 with influenza and 5-10 with RSV. In an email, he said the overall patient numbers “remain exceptionally high.”

For the first two years of the pandemic, the Bay Area’s COVID hospitalization rate was lower than the state’s, but ever since April of this year the tables have turned. For nearly all of the last nine months, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID per 100,000 residents has been higher in the 6 counties surrounding the San Francisco Bay than in the rest of the state.

While the Bay Area’s COVID hospitalization rate is slightly above the state’s as a whole, other parts of the state are also seeing their hospitals getting slammed. Los Angeles County’s Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced on Thursday that hospitals in the county have the lowest number of beds available since before the pandemic, four years ago.

But despite the surge in hospitalizations, there is good news in year three of the pandemic: Thanks to vaccines and therapeutics such as Paxlovid, the severity of COVID-related illnesses is much lower in this wave.

At Stanford, Sehgal said, it has been rare in recent months to see a COVID patient require a ventilator.

State health officials considered it an “important tool” in keeping the virus from overwhelming hospitals, which are seeing a rise in cases — but nothing, so far, like last winter’s record numbers.

For now, masks remain optional indoors — but highly recommended — in most public places. But the latest spike in infections already has sparked a stepped-up indoor mask requirement in some settings under state law. Here’s a quick look at what the current rules say.

Q When did California last require wearing masks indoors?

A One year ago this week the state reinstated its general indoor face mask requirement amid a sharp rise in cases from the super-contagious omicron variant. Masks were required in indoor public places and businesses — retail, restaurants, theaters, family entertainment centers, meetings, state and local government offices serving the public. That requirement lifted March 1 for most public settings and March 11 for schools and childcare. The mask requirement for public transit and transit hubs lifted April 20.

Q Are there places where the state continues to require masks indoors?

A Yes. Mandates have remained in effect for healthcare, long-term care and adult and senior care facilities.

Q Do other places have indoor mask requirements that kick in when cases get high?

A In several Bay Area counties — Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and Napa — masks now are required again for jails, prisons and detention centers, homeless or emergency shelters and cold-weather shelters. That’s because those counties have reached the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s medium or high community risk level, at which state law requires masks in such high-risk settings. The law allows masks to be optional in those settings for counties in the CDC’s low community level.

Q What is a “community risk level”? Where can I find the current level for my county?

A The CDC introduced the community level metric in March, based both on case rates and hospitalizations to reflect the virus’ impact on the regional health care system. The CDC maintains an online map of the country listing the risk level in every county. It currently shows Santa Clara County in the high risk level, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and Napa counties in the medium level, and San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties in the low level. The levels are updated on Thursdays.

To be clear, that metric isn’t the same as the CDC’s transmission level, which is based on case rates and positive tests, but excludes hospitalizations. The transmission level is high in every Bay Area county and across most of California, but it’s not the metric that would trigger new mandates.

Q What are the chances California will reinstate the statewide general indoor mask mandate?

A That’s unlikely anytime soon. The state health department said Monday that “we are not considering a statewide masking mandate at this time” and “we are empowering Californians to take voluntary actions, including masking in public indoor settings, and getting the flu shot and updated COVID-19 booster, to protect themselves and their families from multiple respiratory viruses circulating in the state.” The department noted, however, that “local governments may implement separate and more strict policies.”

Q But aren’t we in a case surge like last winter?

A It’s hard to compare. Reported case counts and infection rates are a fraction of what they were in January, but so is the amount of daily testing reported to health agencies. Many people with mild COVID aren’t testing at all and those who do often use at home rapid antigen tests and don’t report the results. So while health authorities say cases are higher than reported, they don’t know by how much.

Q Are there local mandates that would go beyond the state’s limited requirements?

A Bay Area county health officials say they aren’t planning to renew an indoor mask requirement for now, even with cases rising sharply, though they strongly recommend masks not only to protect against COVID-19 but also influenza, which is circulating early this year. They note that vaccines are available that help protect against both.

Q Will mask mandates appear in other counties?

A Los Angeles County has a policy that would reinstate the indoor mask mandate if the county remains in the CDC’s high community level for at least 14 straight days. But county health officials believe that may not happen.

Q What about cities?

A Cities can impose their own COVID mandates too, though only the largest tend to do so. Oakland on Nov. 1 lifted its mask requirement for indoor gatherings of 2,500 or more people, and on Nov. 28 eliminated a requirement to mask in city libraries, recreation centers and civic center buildings. That last move drew a protest Tuesday by advocates for the disabled and elderly, who want the mandates to continue. San Jose does not currently have any requirements or mandates for masks at City public facilities.

The agreement was part of the consent calendar that the Board of Supervisors approved 5-0 on Nov. 29. The sheriff’s office is believed to be the final agency in Contra Costa County to acquire and use body-worn cameras.

Other agencies that have contracted out with the sheriff’s office already use the technology. Body cams helped lead to the assault conviction of Andrew Hall, a Danville police deputy, for the 2018 on-duty fatal shooting of Fremont resident Laudemer Arboleda.

The contract runs over 10 years and will cost the county $12.5 million overall, with an annual bill of about $1.2 million. The county will be purchasing the cameras from Axon Enterprise, Inc., an Arizona-based company that develops technology and weapons products for military and law enforcement and whose equipment is already used by several Bay Area police agencies.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Jimmy Lee declined to comment.

According to the Board of Supervisors, the sheriff’s office will save $5 million by entering into a decade-long agreement. The annual payment through June 30, 2024, will come through allocations of Measure X, according to the agreement.

How the rest of the annual payments will be made will be determined at a later date. The sheriff’s office will continue to request the funding through Measure X, according to the Board of Supervisors. Measure X is a half-cent sales tax voters approved in November 2020 that among other things can be used for emergency response.