California is bracing for a new round of powerful storms this weekend on the heels of a violent system that claimed six lives this past week and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people. The system left waterlogged roads in Southern California and collapsed piers in Northern California, damaging homes and businesses statewide.
While another atmospheric river moves in, communities are scrambling to sandbag, repair levees and prepare for even more power outages, while still cleaning up from the last round of extreme weather.
“When you look around at the wreckage, the rebuilding looks like an arduous process,” Capitola police Capt. Sarah Ryan said. Capitola is a town near Santa Cruz.
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Among the six people killed in the storms this week was a toddler who died when a redwood tree fell onto his family home in Sonoma County.
More trouble is ahead for California and the rest of the West, with up to 12 inches of rain in Northern California, and several feet of snow expected in the Sierra Nevada mountains and Oregon. Avalanche warnings are in effect as crews work to decrease the risk.
The National Weather Service reports that some parts of the San Francisco Bay Area could see widespread flooding and mudslides from Saturday through Tuesday.
It’s too early to know the dollar amount of this week’s damage. However, one silver lining to the series of storms that have hit the region over the past several weeks is they have helped to ease the drought. When the snowpack melts, some of the water will refill parched reservoirs, but California is still in extreme drought, so there’s a long way to go.
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