California Weather: Latest round of rain batters Bay Area with no relief forecast until Thursday

Santa Cruz County supervisors approved two local emergency declarations Tuesday for the winter storms that have battered the county in December and January.

According to county officials, the storms have wrought upwards of $21 million in road damage, nearly $7 million in park damage and upwards of $1.2 million to the San Lorenzo Valley Water District's water distribution infrastructure.

Those figures are also likely less than the total amount of damage, according to Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience Director Dave Reid, because they are only current through Jan. 7 and do not include damage estimates from individual cities.

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A new flood advisory was issued Wednesday afternoon as significant rain continued to dump across the Bay Area.

The National Weather Service issued the flood advisory for southern Marin, San Francisco, and northern San Mateo counties.

Officials warned that residents in those counties chould expect minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas. Ponding of water in urban or other areas is occurring or is imminent.

The storm death toll continued to climb Wednesday as a woman was found dead inside a vehicle submerged in Forestville and investigators were trying to determine if the cause of death of two people in Sea Ranch was weather-related.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat  reported that the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office was investigating the cause of death of two people whose bodies were found in a house at The Sea Ranch.

Deputies discounted earlier reports that a large tree had toppled into house. No other details were immediately available.

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Two people trapped in a truck as it became submerged in fast-moving floodwater in Hollister were rescued Tuesday night by Oakland firefighters deployed with a swift water rescue team.

The fire department said its personnel and those of seven other local agencies successfully rescued two adults at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday in the area of 595 Hospital Road in Hollister. The rescue team, deployed by the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), arrived to find the vehicle submerged in high water and the two people trapped on top of the vehicle. 

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CHP confirmed Wednesday that CA-92 is currently shut down in both directions at Upper Skyline Boulevard in San Mateo County.   

CHP said the closure at Skyline Boulevard -- also known as State Route 35 -- was due to unsafe road conditions due to weather.  

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Northern California communities are gearing up for another round of wild weather. In Stanislaus County, the National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings in Modesto overnight Tuesday.

People woke up to heavy rain, roaring thunder, and lightning throughout the area with video recordings from Turlock, Modesto, and Oakdale.

"It's pretty scary because we don't really see that around here in this area," said Giselle Tadeo of Denair.

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The relentless parade of storms continued Wednesday as another plume of moisture rolled into the Bay Area, further elevating fears of flooding, toppling trees and mudslides.

Forecasters said the North Bay would bear the brunt of this latest round of showers. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for the region lasting until Thursday morning.

It's an unwelcome warning for Marin County officials who declared a local state of emergency Tuesday night because of the severe impacts of recent storms.

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As another round of rain rolled into Northern California, Pacific Gas and Electric was providing updates on the number of power outages across the region.

The outage numbers are down by almost half compared to Tuesday evening, when there were more than 34,000 customers without power.

To cope with widespread damage to its power grid, more than 5,000 PG&E workers were responding to storm-related issues, including crews brought in from Southern California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, Wisconsin and Canada. 

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As Peninsula businesses continue to recover from storms passing through this week, one city is raising funds to help its residents with repairs.

Art Bias Studios is home to over 50 artists in San Carlos. The space is filled with their masterpieces. In just a few days, that all changed, when water came rushing in. 

Deborah Shea, who is an artist here, says several gallons of water were removed from her suite.

"Anything on the floor was really affected," said Shea. "I had a number of my big frames from my work ruined."

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SALINAS -- Multiple private levees in south Monterey County were breached on Tuesday, causing additional flooding into the Salinas River and prompting evacuations, according to Monterey County Sheriff's Office.

The levees were privately owned and are not maintained by the county.

The sheriff's office said it was responding to the incidents to ensure public safety and evacuation orders have been issued for the affected areas.

Monterey County emergency information

Evacuation map: Search your address  

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Two people inside a car escaped with their lives after a tree and live wires landed on their car in San Francisco Tuesday.

The San Francisco Fire Department tweeted about the incident at 19th and Fulton avenues just north of Golden Gate Park at 1:52 p.m. 

According to the fire department, a mother and daughter remained in their vehicle as they waited to be rescued, essentially saving their lives.

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GOSHEN, Tulare County (CBS 47) - Two people died after a large eucalyptus tree fell in the center median on Highway 99 near Goshen Tuesday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The incident raised the current death toll across the state from the recent storms to at least 16.

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From the Solano County Sheriff's Office:

Due to impacts from atmospheric river events that began December 30, 2022, and have continued in January 2023, Solano County has issued a countywide local emergency proclamation.

We have experienced impacts to our environment, safety of the public, and critical infrastructure that have included, but are not limited to:
• Localized flooding
• Downed trees and utilities
• Road closures
• Mudslides
• Damages to levee infrastructure
•  Loss of power and other critical infrastructure

We continue to experience flooding of roadways and widespread outages and will have rain throughout the rest of the week with another atmospheric river by late Friday, January 13, into next week.
Soil conditions remain saturated and additional rains will increase the likelihood of further damage throughout the county. There is no estimated cost of damage currently and damage assessments are ongoing.

This proclamation is in alignment with the State of California Emergency Declaration.
Both proclamations allow smoother response and recovery efforts to continue throughout the county and state.

We continue to coordinate with agencies throughout the county including but not limited to the city/county departments, California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, PG&E, Reclamation Districts, and Solano County Water Agency.
Solano County Office of Emergency Services encourages our community to sign up for emergency notifications at www.AlertSolano.com and visit www.SolanoCounty.com/StormReady for ways to prepare.  

Cold, unstable air flowing in the wake of the latest atmospheric river Tuesday spawned lightning strikes, pounding hailstorms and intense downpours across the Bay Area.

The wintry maelstrom rolled into the region mid-morning and immediately began creating havoc. San Francisco firefighters rescued two people who were trapped in their vehicle after a tree toppled on it at Fulton and 19th Ave. in the Richmond District.

A tree also toppled onto a San Francisco Muni bus near Stockton and Sutter streets and pulled down an overhead wire.

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The wild thunderstorms that rolled through the Bay Area Tuesday created a couple of unusual moments in San Francisco that were captured and shared on social media.

Twitter user Daniel Haire shared video and a photo of lightning striking Sutro Tower shortly before 1 p.m.

KPIX meteorologist Darren Peck also posted video from a cameras at the base of the tower.

There were no reports of any transmission issues related to the tower after the strike, but as Peck noted in his post, it is designed to handle such incidents.

About a half an hour later, Twitter user Christina B. Campbell posted video that showed the Transamerica Pyramid getting struck by a bolt of lightning.

Officials in Walnut Creek warned commuters that all eastbound lanes of Ygnacio Valley Road will be closed through the evening due to a tree that fell on a PG&E power line.

The incident was reported around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday during the heavy winds and rains caused by thunderstorms powering through Northern California.

There was no report regarding whether the incident has caused an outage. The busy East Bay thoroughfare is closed to eastbound traffic between N. Civic Drive to Tampico Place. 

Utility crews expect to work through Wednesday to clear the tree. Drivers are advised to avoid the area and use Treat Boulevard as an alternate route.    

Turbulent flood waters forced rescue divers to call off their search late Monday for a 5-year-old boy who was swept away in the San Marcos Creek outside of San Miguel in San Luis Obispo County.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Travis Craig told the San Luis Obispo Tribune the boy was in a vehicle with his mother when it became disabled in the rapidly rising waters during Monday's deluge.

A roughly seven-hour search for the missing boy turned up only his shoe before officials called it off as water levels were too dangerous for divers.

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Thunderstorms rolled through the Bay Area Tuesday, with some neighborhoods seeing a deluge of rain and hail, including the West Portal neighborhood in San Francisco:

An active jet stream continued to be an atmospheric river expressway, slamming yet another weather front into the Bay Area early Tuesday with damaging winds, lightning strikes, tornado warnings and intense downpours.

Tuesday's system was embedded with potent storm cells carrying pea-sized hail, lightning and thunder. A cell that moved over San Francisco and the East Bay around noon triggered 5-10 lightning strikes every 5 minutes. 

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