WEATHER

Battered Northern California blasted by new storm

John Bacon and Nathan Solis
USA TODAY Network
Members of the Maxwell Fire Department fill sandbags as the town prepares for another storm, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017, in Maxwell, Calif.

REDDING, California — Pounding storms roared into Northern California on Monday, the latest assault on a region beset by weeks of heavy rain, floods and mudslides.

Officials announced a levee breach on the San Joaquin River and ordered residents to evacuate, the National Weather Service reported late Monday. The agency issued flash flood warnings due to the levee breach. Responders managed to halt the breach, and materials were being sent to the area to stabilize the levee.

The National Weather Service was calling for up to eight inches of rain over parts of the region Monday and Tuesday. Wind gusts in some areas could reach 65 mph. Flood warnings for a handful of rivers could last until week's end — this for a state that two months ago was mired in severe drought.

Heavy snow was forecast to pound the Sierra, where totals will be measured in feet, not inches.

The latest storms come days after Southern California was slammed with up to 10 inches of rain blamed for five deaths. Workers shored up a sinkhole that swallowed a car on Friday in Los Angeles and reopened part of the road affected on Monday, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Now, Northern California locations that "haven't been impacted in many years" may see flooding, National Weather Service forecasters in Sacramento said.

In the San Joaquin Valley, east of San Francisco, authorities were keeping a wary eye on the San Joaquin River. Many nearby neighborhoods are protected by large levees or dikes, but authorities warned residents to be prepared to evacuate.

Residents were patrolling levees in the area Monday for signs of danger, reviewing evacuation plans and filling hundreds of sand bags after the San Joaquin River kept rising.

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“Our community is pulling together like real champs,” said San Joaquin River Club resident Paula Martin, who is helping coordinate efforts to protect a neighborhood of 800 homes.

The river could remain at or near the top of its levees for four days, said Tim Daly, a spokesman with the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services. The weather service advisory warned that the "entire region has saturated soils and many flooded areas already" and can't take much more rain.

“When the water gets that high and more water is coming, there is just too much pressure and levees can break,” Daly warned.

San Francisco already has been blasted by 24.5 inches of rain since Oct. 1 — more than it normally gets in a year. Farther north, Redding, Chico, Weaverville and Sacramento could be slammed with 2-3 inches of rain on Monday and Tuesday, the Weather Service said. Heavy winds threaten to knock down trees and power lines, blocking roads and cutting off power.

There were silver linings. Almost 200,000 people living in communities from Oroville to Yuba City were evacuated a week ago amid concerns the Oroville Dam's emergency spillway would collapse. The lake level receded, and residents were allowed to return home Tuesday.

Some good news came from Lake Oroville, which reached an important goal on Monday morning as the Department of Water Resources reported lake levels at the Oroville Dam reservoir below 850 feet. The reservoir reached 50 feet below capacity as of 6 a.m. Monday.

“I think we’re looking good for that amount of rain that will be coming in,” Capt. Dan Olson of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told the San Francisco Chronicle. “They should be able to sustain any water that comes in from the storm.”

Residents of Maxwell, about 95 miles south of Redding, were cleaning up after a creek spilled over into a neighborhood and business district, flooding buildings and streets. David Brichacek and his father-in-law, Joe Lilienthal, cleared a culvert under a neighbor’s driveway in nearby Anderson on Sunday.

“This is an emergency where everyone is involved,” Brichacek said.

Solis reports for the Redding Record Searchlight, Bacon for USA TODAY. Contributing: Ananda Rochita, KXTV; Associated Press