Floods, School Closures, Power Outages: Storm Wallops Northern CA

BAY AREA, CA — Cities across the Bay Area grappled with flooding and mudslides Monday as the latest in a series of powerful storms walloped California, shuttering schools, toppling trees and leaving tens of thousands without power.

Storm-related impacts such as trees falling on power lines have downed power to 16,095 customers around the Bay Area on Monday morning, according to PG&E. As of 9 a.m., there were 8,413 without power in the North Bay; 4,771 on the Peninsula; 2,076 in the East Bay, 748 in the South Bay and 87 in San Francisco.

More than 4,100 PG&E, contract and mutual-aid crews are working to get power restored, according to PG&E spokesperson Megan McFarland.

Evacuation orders were issued in Santa Cruz County for residents living near rapidly rising rivers and creeks. The San Lorenzo River was declared at flood stage, and video on social media showed a neighborhood flooded with muddy water almost reaching to a stop sign. Officials warned mudslides and flooding were blocking roads and urged residents to stay home.

In Sonoma County, residents of the Russian River area remained on evacuation warning should the river reach flood stage this week.

In Petaluma in southern Sonoma County, a flood advisory was issued for residents of the Leisure Lake Mobile Home Park. Police said residents of the area should consider evacuating now due to road closures.

Napa County reported multiple flooded roadways Monday morning, and flooding closed state Highway 37 in Marin County.

Several school districts in Northern California were closed because of the storms. In Rohnert Park where sporadic flooding was reported throughout the city, the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District closed all schools Monday. At least five other school districts in Sonoma County were also closed Monday. In Santa Cruz County, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District announced all schools were closed Monday due to the flash flood watch posted by the National Weather Service. Evacuated sites will continue to be closed on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific and are capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow. The rain and snow expected over the next couple of days come after California has already been walloped by storms that last week knocked out power to thousands, flooded streets, and battered the coastline with high surf.

President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration Monday for California to support storm response and relief efforts in 16 counties including Napa, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Placer, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Mateo, Stanislaus and Ventura.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said 12 people died as a result of violent weather during the past 10 days, and he warned that this week’s storms could be even more dangerous. He urged people to stay home.

The first of the newest, heavier storms prompted the weather service to issue a flood watch for a large swath of Northern and Central California. Since Dec. 26, San Francisco received more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain, while Mammoth Mountain, a popular ski area in the Eastern Sierra, got nearly 10 feet (3 meters) of snow, the National Weather Service reported.

The storms won’t be enough to officially end California’s ongoing drought, but they have helped. State Climatologist Michael Anderson said at a weekend news briefing that officials were closely monitoring Monday’s storm and another behind it and were keeping an eye on three other systems farther out in the Pacific.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Californians can expect to see a break in the rain after Jan. 18.

"That is my best guess right now, which is good because it will give the rivers in Northern California, and now in Central California, a chance to come down," he said.

The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.