Another severe storm battered California overnight into Saturday, causing hundreds to evacuate, at least two fatalities, and the failure of a levee in coastal Monterey County.
A Monterey County supervisor named Luis Alejo tweeted on Saturday; “We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight.”
State emergency services director, Nancy Ward revealed on Friday that at least two people had already died as a result of the storm.
Guardsmen were shown in pictures released on Twitter by the state’s National Guard account rescuing citizens caught in their vehicles due to excessive water.
In Santa Cruz County, which is located immediately north of Monterey, at least one road washed away.
A number of municipalities, mostly in the north, have received evacuation orders.
California has been pounded for weeks by an unusually intense and apparently never-ending string of storms.
Up to nine inches (23 centimeters) of rain from the most recent storm was predicted to fall on already sodden ground.
This most recent storm, which is a part of a potent atmospheric river called the “Pineapple express” because of the warm, subtropical moisture it carries from Hawaii, will hasten the melting of the massive snowpack that has accumulated in higher elevations.
The ensuing runoff poses a risk of worsening already severe flooding.
An emergency declaration that paves the path for accelerated government assistance to the western state was authorized by US President Joe Biden on Friday.
California is “deploying every tool we have to protect communities from the relentless and deadly storms battering our state,” according to Governor Gavin Newsom.
Meanwhile, 20 deaths were already attributed to storms in January.
