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Tag: Storms

  • Crews continue to sift through Deep South tornado wreckage

    Crews continue to sift through Deep South tornado wreckage

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    Search and recovery crews on Sunday resumed the daunting task of digging through the debris of flattened and battered homes, commercial buildings and municipal offices after hundreds of people were displaced by a deadly tornado that ripped through the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions of the U.S.

    At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through several towns on its hour-long path Friday night. One man was killed after his trailer home flipped several times in Alabama.

    The twister flattened entire blocks, obliterated houses, ripped a steeple off a church and toppled a municipal water tower. Even with recovery just starting, the National Weather Service warned of a risk of more severe weather Sunday — including high winds, large hail and possible tornadoes — in eastern Louisiana, south central Mississippi and south central Alabama.

    Based on early data, the tornado received a preliminary EF-4 rating, the National Weather Service office in Jackson said late Saturday in a tweet. An EF-4 tornado has top wind gusts between 166 mph and 200 mph (265 kph and 320 kph), according to the service. The Jackson office cautioned it was still gathering information on the tornado.

    President Joe Biden promised federal help to Mississippi and Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was scheduled to visit Sunday to evaluate the destruction.

    The Friday night tornado devastated a swath of the 2,000-person town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars on their sides and toppling the town’s water tower. Other parts of the Deep South were digging out from damage caused by other suspected twisters. One man died in Morgan County, Alabama, the sheriff’s department there said in a tweet.

    “How anybody survived is unknown by me,” said Rodney Porter, who lives 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Rolling Fork. When the storm hit Friday night, he immediately drove there to assist in any way he could. Porter arrived to find “total devastation” and said he smelled natural gas and heard people screaming for help in the dark.

    “Houses are gone, houses stacked on top of houses with vehicles on top of that,” he said.

    Annette Body drove to the hard-hit town of Silver City from nearby Belozi to survey the damage. She said she was feeling “blessed” because her own home was not destroyed, but other people she knows lost everything.

    “Cried last night, cried this morning,” she said, looking around at flattened homes. “They said you need to take cover, but it happened so fast a lot of people didn’t even get a chance to take cover.”

    Storm survivors walked around Saturday, many dazed and in shock, as they broke through thickly clustered debris and fallen trees with chain saws, searching for survivors. Power lines were pinned under decades-old oaks, their roots torn from the ground.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency and vowed to help rebuild as he viewed the damage in a region speckled with wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. He spoke with Biden, who also held a call with the state’s congressional delegation.

    More than a half-dozen shelters were opened in Mississippi to house those who have been displaced.

    Preliminary information based on estimates from storm reports and radar data indicate the tornado was on the ground for more than an hour and traversed at least 170 miles (274 kilometers), said Lance Perrilloux, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Jackson, Mississippi, office.

    “That’s rare — very, very rare,” he said, attributing the long path to widespread atmospheric instability.

    Perrilloux said preliminary findings showed the tornado began its path of destruction just southwest of Rolling Fork before continuing northeast toward the rural communities of Midnight and Silver City and onward toward Tchula, Black Hawk and Winona.

    The supercell that produced the deadly twister also appeared to produce tornadoes causing damage in northwest and north-central Alabama, said Brian Squitieri, a severe storms forecaster with the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus in Rolling Fork, Mississippi; Michael Goldberg in Silver City, Mississippi; and Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri, contributed to this report.

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  • Missouri man makes harrowing rescue in flash flood

    Missouri man makes harrowing rescue in flash flood

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    As heavy rains and flash floods doused southwestern Missouri Friday, Layton Hoyer wanted to get a closer look at the rising river levels. That is when he noticed an SUV caught in the flash floods near Granby.

    At first, Hoyer thought the car might have been abandoned, but flashing brake lights caught his eye. The lights were blinking as if someone was intentionally tapping the brakes. He got on top of the train tracks near the ditch where the SUV was trapped and saw someone inside.

    “I could see this elderly woman lying in this car trying to stay in the air bubble,” he said.

    The 33-year-old quickly called 911, but he said the woman didn’t have much time left as the car continued to sink. Hoyer tried to reach her car from the passenger side, but the current was too strong. He then waded through the cold water before he too was submerged and then lunged, grabbing onto her car.

    “I got a hold of the back door and started trying to pull the door open. But the vacuum on the door was so tight,” he said.

    He said he was able to break the seal at the top of her window jam and open the door.

    “I swear there was only a foot of air gap left in the back part of her car,” he said. “I just grabbed her by both arms and pulled her out of there.”

    Hoyer rushed to get them both inside his truck to warm up.

    Jim Channel, assistant Granby fire chief, was responding to a call of an 80-year-old woman trapped in a car when he arrived on the scene. Channel had been called to water rescues by Old Ritchey Road before, but he wasn’t surprised to see who was there.

    “I’ve known the young man all his life, and he will do it again tomorrow,” Channel said of Hoyer. “He didn’t even think about what he was doing.”

    Channel said he along with other rescue workers attempted to save the women’s three dogs inside the car, who were trapped in cages, but they couldn’t reach them in time before getting called to another water rescue.

    Hoyer didn’t get a chance to get the woman’s full name. But he said he would like to see her again.

    “I would love to put my arms around her ’cause she just cried in my arms and told me how thankful she was when the ambulance got there,” he said. “I was so thankful that God put me there to help her.”

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  • Californians eager for sunnier days after relentless winter

    Californians eager for sunnier days after relentless winter

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    SAN DIEGO — Californians are tired. Tired of the rain, tired of the snow, tired of stormy weather and the cold, relentlessly gray skies that have clouded the Golden State nearly nonstop since late December.

    With spring now underway, the state’s 39 million residents are hopeful for sunnier days ahead. But this week’s atmospheric river — the 12th such storm here since late December — had other plans.

    The powerful systems dump huge amounts of rain and snow as they bring massive plumes of Pacific moisture into California. They have already wreaked havoc across the state, with a death toll rising as communities dig out and floodwaters recede. High winds toppled trees, snowfall stranded mountain communities and storm surges inundated coastal towns with no end in sight.

    Californians initially welcomed the precipitation and chilly temperatures after a record-hot summer and yearslong drought that included the driest January through March on record in 2022. But the atmospheric rivers busted the drought in two-thirds of the state and broke precipitation records along the way.

    In San Diego — famed for its 72-and-sunny climate — this week’s high temperatures hover around 60 F to 61 F (15.5 C to 16 C). The average high is 67 F (19 C), said National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Moede.

    And San Diego has already recorded nearly 5 more inches (13 centimeters) of rain than normal since the water year began in October, Moede said.

    All that rainfall has hurt San Diego’s beachfront businesses: Surf schools are slowing down, boardwalk vendors are bored, the usual sun-worshipping locals are staying home.

    “We depend on the sunshine,” said Duncan Taylor, who works at a surf-inspired clothing store called Sun Diego Boardshop. “We depend on people coming out and having a good time at the beach.”

    Noe Reyes closed up his stand in Mission Beach early Tuesday after too much rain and too few customers. He needs tourists to buy hoodies, souvenirs and drinks, but an empty promenade doesn’t make money.

    “It’s been rough,” he said. “There’s no one out here, not even locals.”

    Weather in typically temperate Los Angeles hasn’t been much better. Angelenos experienced the wettest January and February since 2005, according to the National Weather Service. That put a damper on everything from youth baseball leagues that faced cancellation after cancellation to washed-out beach yoga classes overlooking the Santa Monica Pier.

    Beach Yoga SoCal co-owner Eric Gomez said he and his wife, who are from less-sunny New Jersey, took over the business in 2018 to experience yoga in “quintessential LA.”

    “We never imagined it to be this rainy,” Gomez said Wednesday after canceling another class. “It definitely feels like a different climate of sorts these past few months.”

    Even Californians eager for winter weather found themselves exhausted by the season.

    “I am so tired of this rain,” said Nicolas Gonzalez, a National Audubon Society spokesperson. “I am just ready to be outside again.”

    Gonzalez and a friend had planned a cabin weekend last month in the city of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains with the goal of spotting the Southern California valley’s bald eagle pair between snowy hikes and trips to the hot tub. They postponed their trip when major snowfall forced road closures that blocked most routes to the cabin.

    “I’m hoping that next month, it’ll be just as snowy and wintry with less of a life-endangering risk to get there,” he said in February.

    No such luck. The pair had to scrap the trip entirely as more snow fell and roads remained treacherous for weeks.

    Along the central coast — where storm surges and pounding rain have destroyed picturesque seaside towns and inland farming communities alike — TV forecasters are exhausted.

    “I don’t want to come into work,” said Lee Solomon, KSBW’s chief meteorologist. “To have to focus your brain on three storms all at once, in a seven-day period — it’s hard.”

    The stress is compounded by the complexity of knowing when to tell people to flee in a state with microclimates encompassing the coast, high mountains and valley farmlands. The evacuation orders are piling up with the atmospheric rivers, Solomon said, but you don’t want to “over-warn people” and risk complacency.

    In coastal Carmel, Jaime Schrabeck’s nail salon was under evacuation orders for days in mid-January. Now she’s contending with power outages — the result of the 11th atmospheric river — that could cost her up to $1,000 a day. Her clients prefer gel enhancements, which need electricity to power a special light.

    “We can’t take it outdoors and use the sun’s rays to cure it properly,” she said.

    At Schrabeck’s utility provider, Pacific Gas and Electric, crews work 12- to 14-hour days, hanging from poles trying to keep the lights on. They’ve been at it for months, but outages still topped 500,000 statewide during one storm.

    “When everybody else has battened down the hatches, they’re out there working,” said Bob Dean, business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 1245, the union that represents thousands of line workers in Northern California and Nevada. “It’s like, ‘My God, we need a break here.’”

    Further south at Bart’s Books, the partially outdoor bookseller has seen business slow with the rain. The Ojai store lost a shelf of 150 Russian history books to a leak two months back, but manager Matt Henriksen is looking on the bright side.

    “We lose more books to damage from sun than water,” Henriksen said. “This is a Southern California problem.”

    As is the current surfing outlook. Even after the rains let up, experts tell swimmers to stay out of the water for three days. Contaminated runoff increases bacteria, introducing a risk of serious illness.

    For Eric “Bird” Huffman, owner of Bird’s Surf Shed in San Diego, the swell has remained stubbornly small, and the 12th atmospheric river’s forecast is much the same.

    Too many rainy days, too little sunshine. And way too much winter.

    ___

    Dazio reported from Los Angeles.

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  • A 5,000-mile seaweed belt is headed toward Florida

    A 5,000-mile seaweed belt is headed toward Florida

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    WASHINGTON — A 5,000-mile seaweed belt lurking in the Atlantic Ocean is expected in the next few months to wash onto beaches in the Caribbean Sea, South Florida, and the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

    The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt — as the biomass stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico is called — contains scattered patches of seaweed on the open sea, rather than one continuous blob of sargassum. It’s not a new occurrence, but satellite images captured in February showed an earlier start than usual for such a large accumulation in the open ocean.

    Once it washes ashore, sargassum is a nuisance — a thick, brown algae that carpets beaches, releasing a pungent smell as it decays and entangling humans and animals who step into it. For hotels and resorts, clearing the stuff off beaches can amount to a round-the-clock operation.

    Here’s a look at this year’s sargassum seaweed bloom:

    WHAT IS SARGASSUM?

    A leafy brown seaweed festooned with what look like berries. The seaweed floats on the open ocean and — unlike other seaweeds — reproduces on the water’s surface, helped by air-filled structures that give it buoyancy.

    Sargassum originates in a vast stretch of the Atlantic Ocean called the Sargasso Sea, which lies well off the southeast U.S. The Sargasso has no land boundaries; instead, four prevailing ocean currents form its boundaries.

    The matted brown seaweed stretches for miles across the ocean and provides breeding ground, food and habitat for fish, sea turtles and marine birds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    “It’s a dynamic, constantly changing set of pieces of this large mass,” said Rick Lumpkin, director of the Physical Oceanography Division at NOAA. “It’s not one big continuous blob heading straight to South Florida.”

    WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?

    Sargassum piles up on beaches where it quickly decomposes under hot sun, releasing gases that smell like rotten eggs.

    In recent years, sargassum has carpeted beaches on some Caribbean islands and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula in the spring and summer months. Beach towns and cities and hotels have struggled to keep up with the huge amounts of seaweed that wash ashore.

    WHAT ABOUT THIS YEAR?

    Some sargassum has already reached beaches in Key West, said Chuanmin Hu, a professor of oceanography at the University of South Florida. But most of it will arrive in the summer, Hu said.

    “What is unusual this year compared to previous years is it started early,” Hu said. The algae generally blooms in the spring and summer, but “this year, in the winter, we already have a lot.”

    Southern Florida, the Caribbean and the Yucatán Peninsula typically see sargassum piling up in the summer months and could expect the same this year, Hu said.

    IS THIS MUCH SARGASSUM UNUSUAL?

    It’s a lot, but it’s been worse.

    Scientists estimate there’s more than 10 million metric tons of sargassum in the belt this year. Lumpkin called it “one of the strongest years, but not the strongest” since scientists began closely observing the biomass via satellite imagery in 2011.

    He said there was more in 2018. The years 2019 and 2021 also saw a great deal of sargassum, he said.

    WHAT CAUSES IT?

    Scientists aren’t exactly sure, in part because it wasn’t closely monitored until 2011.

    “We do know that to get a lot of seaweed, you need nutrients, and you need sunlight. Of course, as you get close to the equator, there’s going to be more sunlight,” said Mike Parsons, a professor of marine science at Florida Gulf Coast University.

    Parsons and other experts say agricultural runoff seeping into the Amazon and Orinoco rivers and eventually the ocean could explain the increased growth of the belt on the western side. Parsons said warming waters likely help the seaweed grow faster. Changes in wind patterns, sea currents, rainfall and drought could also affect blooms.

    “It may be the entire belt is fed more some years than others by dust that contains iron and other nutrients that comes from the Sahara Desert,” said Lumpkin, of NOAA.

    It’s not clear whether climate change is playing any part. Hu said extreme weather that is happening more frequently due to climate change — high wind events, storms, more precipitation — could be a contributor.

    IS SARGASSUM HARMFUL TO HUMAN HEALTH?

    It can be. When sargassum decomposes, it releases ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, which accounts for the rotten-egg stench. Brief exposure isn’t enough to make people sick, but prolonged exposure — especially for those with respiratory issues — can be dangerous, scientists say.

    Hu said it could be an issue for hotel workers and others who may spend hours removing the decomposing sargassum from beaches.

    Left to rot on the beach, sargassum can turn into a problem. It can harm coastal marine ecosystems and also supports the growth of fecal bacteria.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • California faces more flooding after strong Pacific storm

    California faces more flooding after strong Pacific storm

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    SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — A strong late-season Pacific storm that brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California was blamed for two deaths and forecasters said additional flooding was possible Wednesday in parts of the state.

    Tuesday’s storm focused most of its energy on central and southern parts of the state, bringing threats of heavy runoff and mountain snowfall. In the north, intense hail was reported in Sacramento, the state capital.

    Locally heavy rain and snowmelt may cause flooding Wednesday in southern California and central Arizona, the National Weather Service warned. On Tuesday, some residents of north-central Arizona were told to prepare to evacuate because of rising water levels in rivers and basins.

    Trees and power lines were reported downed in the San Francisco Bay Area. An Amtrak commuter train carrying 55 passengers struck a downed tree and derailed near the East Bay village of Porta Costa. The train remained upright and nobody was injured, Amtrak and fire officials said.

    In the Bay Area community of Portola Valley, a man driving a sewer truck was killed when a tree fell onto the vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said. And in the community of Rossmoor, a driver was injured and a passenger died after a large tree fell onto a car, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said.

    In the Monterey Bay region, a severe windstorm located over the ocean blasted Santa Cruz County with wind gusts up to 80 mph (129 kph) at midday. Along the coastline of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, ocean foam blew across the roadways like large snowflakes.

    Wind gusts reached 76 mph (122 kph) in Santa Cruz mountain communities, including Boulder Creek.

    Resident Frank Kuhr waited for hours Tuesday afternoon at a downtown supermarket for crews to remove large redwoods that were blocking a highway. “Trees are down everywhere,” Kuhr said. “The wind has been unbelievable. Branches were flying through the air, and folks could hear trees just falling and cracking.”

    “This one’s a doozy,” Kuhr said.

    Some 133,000 customers were without electricity early Wednesday throughout the state, according to PowerOutage.us.

    The National Weather Service said Tuesday’s storm, which came on the first full day of spring following the state’s extraordinary winter, was a Pacific low pressure system interacting with California’s 12th atmospheric river since late December.

    California’s unexpected siege of wet weather after years of drought also included February blizzards powered by arctic air.

    The storms have unleashed flooding and loaded mountains with so much snow that roofs have been crushed and crews have struggled to keep highways clear of avalanches.

    The Mammoth Mountain resort in the eastern Sierra Nevada announced that it will remain open for skiing and snowboarding at least through the end of July.

    With a season-to-date snowfall of 634 inches (16.1 meters) at the main lodge, it was likely just one storm away from breaking the all-time record of 668 inches (16.9 meters) set in the 2010-2011 season.

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  • Flooding, landslides as atmospheric river departs California

    Flooding, landslides as atmospheric river departs California

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    LOS ANGELES — Southern California residents weary of a storm-soaked winter were hit Wednesday by parting shots from the season’s 11th atmospheric river, which flooded roadways, caused landslides and toppled trees throughout the state.

    Water pooled on roadways, rocks and mud littered others, and there were reports of potholes that disabled numerous cars. Flooding closed several miles of Pacific Coast Highway through Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles on the Orange County coast.

    Three clifftop apartment buildings were evacuated when earth slid away from their backyards in coastal San Clemente, the Orange County Fire Authority said. Residents were also cleared out of a nearby building as the severity of the slide was studied.

    Orange County had already declared a local emergency when a similar hillside collapsed on March 3 in Newport Beach, leaving a house uninhabitable and endangering others.

    Statewide, more than 143,000 utility customers remained without power Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom surveyed flood damage in an agricultural region on the central coast, noting that California could potentially see a 12th atmospheric river next week.

    “Look back — last few years in this state, it’s been fire to ice with no warm bath in between,” the Democrat said, describing “weather whiplash” in a state that has quickly gone from extreme drought and wildfires to overwhelming snow and rain.

    “If anyone has any doubt about Mother Nature and her fury, if anyone has any doubt about what this is all about in terms of what’s happening to the climate and the changes that we are experiencing, come to California,” the governor said.

    California’s latest atmospheric river was one of two storm systems that bookended the U.S. this week. Parts of New England and New York were digging out of a nor’easter Wednesday that caused tens of thousands of power outages, numerous school cancellations and whiteout conditions on roads.

    Remaining showers across Southern California were expected to decrease through Wednesday evening as the storm headed toward parts of the Great Basin. The weather service said California will see minor precipitation this weekend, followed by another substantial storm next week.

    For downtown Los Angeles, the National Weather Service said just under two feet of rain (61 centimeters) has been recorded so far this water year — making this the 14th wettest in more than 140 years of records.

    An overnight mudslide onto a road in the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles County trapped two cars, KNBC-TV reported. Another hillside in the neighborhood also gave way, threatening the foundation of a hilltop home.

    Statewide, about 27,000 people remained under evacuation orders and more than 61,000 were under warnings to be ready to evacuate due to weather impacts, according to the California Office of Emergency Services. Emergency shelters housed 676 people Tuesday night.

    Weather in the northern and central sections of the state had dried out earlier, following Tuesday’s heavy rain and fierce winds that blew out windows on a San Francisco high-rise and gusted to 74 mph (119 kph) at the city’s airport.

    The governor issued emergency declarations for three more counties on Tuesday, raising the total to 43 of the state’s 58 counties.

    Despite California’s rains winding down, flood warnings remain in effect on the central coast for the Salinas and Pajaro rivers in Monterey County and other rivers in the Central Valley as water runs off land that has been saturated by storms since late December.

    Runoff from a powerful atmospheric river last week burst a levee on the Pajaro River, triggering evacuations as water flooded farmland and agricultural communities. Nearly half of the people under evacuation orders were in Monterey County.

    The first phase of repairs on the 400-foot (120-meter) levee breach was completed Tuesday afternoon and crews were working to raise the section to full height, county officials said.

    Damage continued to emerge elsewhere in the state. In the Sequoia National Forest, the Alta Sierra Ski Resort said it would be closed for at least two weeks because of extensive flooding and infrastructure damage, citing the U.S. Forest Service. There is also “massive slide potential” on the highway serving the resort, the resort tweeted.

    California was deep in drought before an unexpected series of atmospheric rivers barreled into the state from late December through mid-January, causing flooding while building a staggering snowpack in the Sierra Nevada.

    Storms powered by arctic air followed in February, creating blizzard conditions that buried mountain communities under so much snow that structures began collapsing.

    The water content of the Sierra snowpack is now more than 200% of the April 1 average, when it normally peaks, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

    Hollywood stars splashed down a rain-soaked red carpet in Los Angeles at Tuesday’s premiere of “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” where rainfall totals are double the normal average.

    The film’s stars — including Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler — tiptoed over the saturated rug as they unsuccessfully tried to stay dry.

    “My feet are wet,” said Zegler. “I’m a little bit bummed, I’m not gonna lie.”

    ___

    AP Photojournalist Krysta Fauria contributed to this report.

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  • New atmospheric river pushes into swamped California

    New atmospheric river pushes into swamped California

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    WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Forecasters warned of more flooding, potentially damaging winds and difficult travel conditions on mountain highways as a new atmospheric river pushed into swamped California early Tuesday.

    Initial precipitation was light as the system spread across northern and central regions. But the National Weather Service said it was intensifying, and the heaviest rainfall was still offshore.

    The system was expected to be a quick hit, rapidly moving from north to south. But authorities worried about runoff causing flooding because California’s extraordinarily wet winter has left soils supersaturated.

    So far this winter, the state has been battered by 10 previous atmospheric rivers, long plumes of moisture from the Pacific Ocean, as well as powerful storms fueled by arctic air that produced blizzard conditions. On the East Coast, the start of a winter storm with heavy, wet snow caused a plane to slide off the runway and led to hundreds of school closings, canceled flights and thousands of power outages in parts of the Northeast on Tuesday.

    In California, more dangerous flooding was expected on the central coast, where a levee was breached as the Pajaro River swelled with runoff from an atmospheric river last week.

    The Pajaro River’s first levee rupture grew to at least 400 feet (120 meters) since it failed late Friday, officials said. More than 8,500 people were forced to evacuate, and about 50 people had to be rescued as the water rose that night.

    Still, some stayed behind in Pajaro, an unincorporated community that is known for its strawberry crops and is now mostly flooded. The largely Latino farmworker community there is already struggling to find food with so many roads and businesses closed in the storm’s aftermath.

    “Some people have nowhere to go, and maybe that’s why there’s still people around,” resident Jorbelit Rincon said Monday. “Pretty much they don’t know where to go and don’t have money to provide for themselves.”

    A second breach opened up another 100 feet (30.48 meters) of the levee closer to the Pacific coast, providing a “relief valve” for the floodwaters to recede near the mouth of the river, officials said Monday during a news conference.

    Built in the late 1940s to provide flood protection, the levee has been a known risk for decades and had several breaches in the 1990s. Emergency repairs to a section of the berm were undertaken in January. A $400 million rebuild is set to begin in the next few years.

    Along the Southern California coast, evacuation orders were scheduled to take effect at 8 a.m. Tuesday in Santa Barbara County for several areas that were burned by wildfires in recent years. Burned soil can be water-repellent, increasing the risk of flash floods and flows of debris such as downed trees, according to the National Weather Service.

    Water from the newest storm was likely go over the Pajaro River’s levee — but crews were working to make sure the rupture doesn’t get any larger, said Shaunna Murray of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. Over the weekend, crews had to build access roads to get to the site of the breach, and bring in rocks and boulders to plug the gap.

    The river separates Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of San Francisco. Several roads were closed including a stretch of coastal Highway 1, a main route between the two counties.

    Monterey County officials also warned that the Salinas River could cause significant flooding of roadways and agricultural land, cutting off the Monterey Peninsula from the rest of the county. The city of Monterey and other communities are located on the peninsula.

    Undersheriff Keith Boyd said first responders have rescued about 170 people who were stranded within the county’s evacuation areas since Friday, including a woman and her baby who got stuck trying to drive through high waters.

    The undersheriff said 20 to 40 people remained trapped Monday near the Salinas River because the roads were impassible for rescuers.

    Authorities had not received reports of any deaths or missing persons related to the storm as of Monday afternoon.

    Winery and agricultural experts from the region said they are concerned about the storms’ effect on crops — both ones in the ground that are currently submerged and ones that should be planted for the upcoming growing season.

    Karla Loreto, who works at a Pajaro gas station, said she is worried about the toll the flooding will take on the area’s farmworkers.

    “The fields are flooded right now,” she said Monday. “Probably no jobs there right now. For this year, probably no strawberries, no blackberries, no blueberries.”

    ___

    Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.

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  • Multiday winter storm bringing heavy, wet snow to Northeast

    Multiday winter storm bringing heavy, wet snow to Northeast

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    The start of a winter storm with heavy, wet snow led to hundreds of school closings, canceled flights and some power outages in parts of the Northeast on Tuesday.

    The storm’s path included parts of New England, upstate New York, northeastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey. Snow totals by the time it winds up Wednesday were expected to range from a few inches to a few feet, depending on the area.

    “This is shaping up to be a unique winter storm for our small state in that there will be big differences in snowfall amounts depending on where you are located,” said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, who ordered all executive branch state office buildings closed. “Some towns may receive a significant snowfall total, while others may receive a fraction of that amount or maybe even just rain.”

    The airport in Albany, New York, which began clearing snow on Monday night, was open, but canceled 16 morning departures early Tuesday. Bradley International Airport in Connecticut also was open and clearing snow; about 15% of its flights were canceled.

    The National Weather Service said that in New York 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow per hour or more was falling in higher elevations, in the eastern Catskills through the mid-Hudson Valley, central Taconics and Berkshires.

    Wet, heavy snow snapped tree branches and downed power lines across New York’s capital region. More than 30,000 homes and businesses in the Albany area were without power.

    The snowfall totals will be among the highest of the season, said meteorologist Andrew Orrison of the weather service office in College Park, Maryland.

    “It has been below average for snowfall across the Northeast this year, and so this nor’easter will be very impactful,” he said.

    Rain was turning into snow across parts of New England and winds were picking up. In New Hampshire, it was Election Day for town officeholders, but more than 70 communities postponed voting because of the storm.

    “We know that the driving conditions are going to be treacherous,” Patrick Moody of AAA New England said.

    The weather service said expected snow totals from the storm, which is expected to wind up Wednesday, range from a foot to 18 inches (30 to 46 cm) in higher elevations in Massachusetts, to 4 to 6 inches in Boston. Higher elevations in southwest New Hampshire could get up to 2 feet of snow, and Augusta, Maine, could see 8 inches to a foot.

    The storm in the Northeast came as California continued to face severe weather. Crews rushed to repair a levee break on a storm-swollen river in California’s central coast as yet another atmospheric river arrived this week with the potential to wallop the state’s swamped farmland and agricultural communities.

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  • Flood problems grow as new storm moves into California

    Flood problems grow as new storm moves into California

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    WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Crews rushed to repair a levee break on a storm-swollen river in California’s central coast as yet another atmospheric river arrived Monday with the potential to wallop the state’s swamped farmland and agricultural communities.

    The Pajaro River’s first levee rupture grew to at least 400 feet (120 meters) since it failed late Friday, officials said. More than 8,500 people were forced to evacuate, and about 50 people had to be rescued as the water rose that night.

    Still, some stayed behind in Pajaro, an unincorporated community that’s known for its strawberry crops and is now mostly flooded. The largely Latino farmworker community there is already struggling to find food with so many roads and businesses closed in the storm’s aftermath.

    “Some people have nowhere to go and maybe that’s why there’s still people around,” resident Jorbelit Rincon said Monday. “Pretty much they don’t know where to go and don’t have money to provide for themselves.”

    A second breach opened up another 100 feet (30.48 meters) of the levee closer to the Pacific coast, providing a “relief valve” for the floodwaters to recede near the mouth of the river, officials said Monday during a news conference.

    Built in the late 1940s to provide flood protection, the levee has been a known risk for decades and had several breaches in the 1990s. Emergency repairs to a section of the berm were undertaken in January. A $400 million rebuild is set to begin in the next few years.

    Forecasters warned of more flooding, wind damage and potential power outages from the new atmospheric river that came ashore Monday evening in northern and central parts of the state and was expected to move south over several days. California has been pummeled this winter by 10 atmospheric rivers, which are long, narrow plumes of moisture that turn into rain and snow when they make landfall.

    Along the Southern California coast, evacuation orders were scheduled to take effect at 8 a.m. Tuesday in Santa Barbara County for several areas that were burned by wildfires in recent years. Burned soil can be water-repellent, increasing the risk of flash floods and flows of debris such as downed trees, according to the National Weather Service.

    Water from the newest storm will likely go over the Pajaro River’s levee — but crews were working to make sure the rupture doesn’t get any larger, said Shaunna Murray of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. Over the weekend, crews had to build access roads to get to the site of the breach, and bring in rocks and boulders to plug the gap.

    The river separates Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of San Francisco. Several roads were closed including a stretch of coastal Highway 1, a main route between the two counties.

    Monterey County officials also warned that the Salinas River could cause significant flooding of roadways and agricultural land, cutting off the Monterey Peninsula from the rest of the county. The city of Monterey and other communities are located on the peninsula.

    Undersheriff Keith Boyd said first responders have rescued about 170 people who were stranded within the county’s evacuation areas since Friday, including a woman and her baby who got stuck trying to drive through high waters.

    The undersheriff said 20 to 40 people remained trapped Monday near the Salinas River because the roads were impassible for rescuers.

    Authorities had not received reports of any deaths or missing persons related to the storm as of Monday afternoon.

    Winery and agricultural experts from the region said they are concerned about the storms’ impact on crops — both ones in the ground that are currently submerged, and ones that should be planted for the upcoming growing season.

    Karla Loreto, who works at a Pajaro gas station, said she is worried about the toll the flooding will take on the area’s farmworkers.

    “The fields are flooded right now,” she said Monday. “Probably no jobs there right now. For this year, probably no strawberries, no blackberries, no blueberries.”

    Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday declared a state of emergency in six more counties after earlier making declarations for 34 counties.

    Last week’s atmospheric river carried warm subtropical moisture that caused melting at lower elevations of California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack, adding to runoff that has swelled rivers and streams.

    But the snowpack is so deep and cold that it mostly absorbed the rain, resulting in an even greater snowpack in the southern and central Sierra, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    California Department of Water Resources online data showed Monday that the water content of the Sierra snowpack was 207% of the April 1 average, when it is normally at its peak. In the southern Sierra it was 248% of the average.

    ___

    Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.

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  • Flood problems grow as new storm moves into California

    Flood problems grow as new storm moves into California

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    WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Crews rushed to repair a levee break on a storm-swollen river in California’s central coast as yet another atmospheric river arrived Monday with the potential to wallop the state’s swamped farmland and agricultural communities.

    The Pajaro River’s first levee rupture grew to at least 400 feet (120 meters) since it failed late Friday, officials said. More than 8,500 people were forced to evacuate, and about 50 people had to be rescued as the water rose that night.

    Still, some stayed behind in Pajaro, an unincorporated community that’s known for its strawberry crops and is now mostly flooded. The largely Latino farmworker community there is already struggling to find food with so many roads and businesses closed in the storm’s aftermath.

    “Some people have nowhere to go and maybe that’s why there’s still people around,” resident Jorbelit Rincon said Monday. “Pretty much they don’t know where to go and don’t have money to provide for themselves.”

    A second breach opened up another 100 feet (30.48 meters) of the levee closer to the Pacific coast, providing a “relief valve” for the floodwaters to recede near the mouth of the river, officials said Monday during a news conference.

    Built in the late 1940s to provide flood protection, the levee has been a known risk for decades and had several breaches in the 1990s. Emergency repairs to a section of the berm were undertaken in January. A $400 million rebuild is set to begin in the next few years.

    Forecasters warned of more flooding, wind damage and potential power outages from the new atmospheric river that came ashore Monday evening in northern and central parts of the state and was expected to move south over several days. California has been pummeled this winter by 10 atmospheric rivers, which are long, narrow plumes of moisture that turn into rain and snow when they make landfall.

    Water from the newest storm will likely go over the Pajaro River’s levee — but crews were working to make sure the rupture doesn’t get any larger, said Shaunna Murray of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. Over the weekend, crews had to build access roads to get to the site of the breach, and bring in rocks and boulders to plug the gap.

    The river separates Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of San Francisco. Several roads were closed including a stretch of coastal Highway 1, a main route between the two counties.

    Monterey County officials also warned that the Salinas River could cause significant flooding of roadways and agricultural land, cutting off the Monterey Peninsula from the rest of the county. The city of Monterey and other communities are located on the peninsula.

    Undersheriff Keith Boyd said first responders have rescued about 170 people who were stranded within the county’s evacuation areas since Friday, including a woman and her baby who got stuck trying to drive through high waters.

    The undersheriff said 20 to 40 people remained trapped Monday near the Salinas River because the roads were impassible for rescuers.

    Authorities had not received reports of any deaths or missing persons related to the storm as of Monday afternoon.

    Winery and agricultural experts from the region said they are concerned about the storms’ impact on crops — both ones in the ground that are currently submerged, and ones that should be planted for the upcoming growing season.

    Karla Loreto, who works at a Pajaro gas station, said she is worried about the toll the flooding will take on the area’s farmworkers.

    “The fields are flooded right now,” she said Monday. “Probably no jobs there right now. For this year, probably no strawberries, no blackberries, no blueberries.”

    Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday declared a state of emergency in six more counties after earlier making declarations for 34 counties.

    Last week’s atmospheric river carried warm subtropical moisture that caused melting at lower elevations of California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack, adding to runoff that has swelled rivers and streams.

    But the snowpack is so deep and cold that it mostly absorbed the rain, resulting in an even greater snowpack in the southern and central Sierra, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    California Department of Water Resources online data showed Monday that the water content of the Sierra snowpack was 207% of the April 1 average, when it is normally at its peak. In the southern Sierra it was 248% of the average.

    ___

    Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.

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  • As atmospheric river exits, another awaits to hit California

    As atmospheric river exits, another awaits to hit California

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    WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Wet, miserable weather continued across huge swaths of California on Sunday as an atmospheric river that caused major flooding flowed eastward, and as a new system threatens the region with another onslaught of rain, snow and gusting winds as soon as Monday night.

    The National Weather Service said the next torrent could exacerbate the severe flooding that overwhelmed the area in recent days, causing a levee failure that prompted widespread evacuations Saturday in farming communities near the state’s Central Coast.

    The next system is not expected to bring as much rain, but forecasters cautioned that “considerable flooding” could occur in lower elevations from additional rain and snowmelt that could swell creeks and streams.

    “Definitely prepare for some more flooding impacts. The ground is very saturated. We’re already seeing some impacts from some light amounts even today,” National Weather Service forecaster Eleanor Dhuyvetter said.

    The rain and snow is expected to extend from Central California to Oregon, as well as northern Nevada.

    Of particular concern are the expected strong winds. The weather service is predicting wind gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) in some places — which could potentially snap tree branches and damage power lines.

    But the new storm is moving fast, meaning it won’t have time to dump as much rain.

    Over the past two days, more than 20 inches (50 centimeters) of snow fell at a measuring station in the Sierra Nevada, and the new system is expected to pack even more. The snowpack is now nearly twice the average — the highest amount of snowfall in about four decades, according to UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab.

    The snowpack stores much-needed water for a state seeking to emerge from a three-year drought.

    As much as a foot (30 centimeters) of rain fell in the Big Sur area of the state over a two-day period, weather data.

    Authorities suggest that residents have a plan in case further evacuations orders are issued.

    Across Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were evacuated Saturday, including roughly 1,700 residents — many of them Latino farmworkers — from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.

    “We are still in disaster response mode,” said Monterey County spokesman Nicholas Pasculli on Sunday. He said the county is staging high water rescue teams around the county and opening more shelters in anticipation of more flooding as the new storm rolls in.

    The flooding has impacted drinking water facilities in Pajaro. Officials said residents should not drink tap water for cooking or drinking until further notice.

    Highway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, is closed at several points along Big Sur as well as near Pajaro due to flooding.

    The atmospheric river, known as a “Pineapple Express” because it brought warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific from near Hawaii, was melting lower parts of the huge snowpack in California’s mountains.

    Because of the massive flooding over the early weekend, more than 50 people had to be rescued by first responders and the California National Guard. One video showed a Guard member helping a driver out of a car trapped by water up to their waists.

    The extent of property damages was still uncertain but Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, sought help from the state and federal governments.

    “The need will be great! Will take months for our residents to repair homes!” he wrote in a tweet Saturday.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared emergencies in 34 counties in recent weeks, and the Biden administration approved a presidential disaster declaration for some on Friday morning, moving to expedite more federal assistance. President Joe Biden spoke with Newsom on Saturday to pledge federal support for California’s emergency response, the White House said.

    Weather-related power outages affected more than 17,000 customers in Monterey County late Saturday, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. By late Sunday morning, about 7,000 were still without electricity.

    The governor’s office said it was continuing to monitor the situation in Pajaro.

    The Pajaro River separates the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey. Officials had been working along the river’s levee system in the hopes of shoring it up when it was breached around midnight Friday into Saturday. Crews began working to fix the levee around daybreak Saturday as residents slept in evacuation centers.

    Built in the late 40s to provide flood protection, the levee has been a known risk for decades with periodic signs of significant trouble. In the 1990s the levee was breached several times, prompting flooding that led to evacuations and disaster declarations. Emergency repairs to a section of the berm was undertaken in January. A $400 million rebuild is slated to begin in 2025.

    This week’s storm marked the state’s 10th atmospheric river of the winter, storms that have brought enormous amounts of rain and snow to the state and helped lessen drought conditions that had dragged on for three years. State reservoirs that had dipped to strikingly low levels are now well above the average for this time of year, prompting state officials to release water from dams to assist with flood control and make room for even more rain.

    ___

    Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, and Bobby Caina Calvan in New York contributed.

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  • Four astronauts fly SpaceX back home, end 5-month mission

    Four astronauts fly SpaceX back home, end 5-month mission

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    Four space station astronauts are back on Earth after a quick SpaceX flight home

    ByMARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four space station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a quick SpaceX flight home.

    Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast near Tampa.

    The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent five months at the International Space Station, arriving last October. Besides dodging space junk, the astronauts had to deal with a pair of leaking Russian capsules docked to the orbiting outpost and the urgent delivery of a replacement craft for the station’s other crew members.

    Led by NASA’s Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman to fly in space, the astronauts checked out of the station early Saturday morning. Less than 19 hours later, their Dragon capsule was bobbing in the sea as they awaited pickup.

    Earlier in the week, high wind and waves in the splashdown zones kept them at the station a few extra days. Their replacements arrived more than a week ago.

    “That was one heck of a ride,” Mann radioed moments after splashdown. “We’re happy to be home.”

    Mann, a member of Northern California’s Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, said she couldn’t wait to feel the wind on her face, smell fresh grass and enjoy some delicious Earth food.

    Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata craved sushi, while Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina yearned to drink hot tea “from real cup, not from plastic bag.”

    NASA astronaut Josh Cassada’s to-do list included getting a rescue dog for his family. “Please don’t tell our two cats,” he joked before departing the space station.

    Remaining behind at the space station are three Americans, three Russians and one from the United Arab Emirates.

    Wakata, Japan’s spaceflight champion, now has logged more than 500 days in space over five missions dating back to NASA’s shuttle era.

    ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Four astronauts fly SpaceX back home, end 5-month mission

    Four astronauts fly SpaceX back home, end 5-month mission

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    Four space station astronauts are back on Earth after a quick SpaceX flight home

    ByMARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four space station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a quick SpaceX flight home.

    Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast near Tampa.

    The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent five months at the International Space Station, arriving last October. Besides dodging space junk, the astronauts had to deal with a pair of leaking Russian capsules docked to the orbiting outpost and the urgent delivery of a replacement craft for the station’s other crew members.

    Led by NASA’s Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman to fly in space, the astronauts checked out of the station early Saturday morning. Less than 19 hours later, their Dragon capsule was bobbing in the sea as they awaited pickup.

    Earlier in the week, high wind and waves in the splashdown zones kept them at the station a few extra days. Their replacements arrived more than a week ago.

    “That was one heck of a ride,” Mann radioed moments after splashdown. “We’re happy to be home.”

    Mann, a member of Northern California’s Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, said she couldn’t wait to feel the wind on her face, smell fresh grass and enjoy some delicious Earth food.

    Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata craved sushi, while Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina yearned to drink hot tea “from real cup, not from plastic bag.”

    NASA astronaut Josh Cassada’s to-do list included getting a rescue dog for his family. “Please don’t tell our two cats,” he joked before departing the space station.

    Remaining behind at the space station are three Americans, three Russians and one from the United Arab Emirates.

    Wakata, Japan’s spaceflight champion, now has logged more than 500 days in space over five missions dating back to NASA’s shuttle era.

    ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Storm breaches California river’s levee, thousands evacuate

    Storm breaches California river’s levee, thousands evacuate

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    WATSONVILLE, Calif. — A Northern California agricultural community famous for its strawberry crop was forced to evacuate early Saturday after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river that pummeled the state.

    Across the Central Coast’s Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday, including roughly 1,700 residents — many of them Latino farmworkers — from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.

    Officials said the Pajaro River’s levee breach is about 100 feet (30.48 meters) wide. Crews had gone door to door Friday afternoon to urge residents to leave before the rains came but some stayed and had to be pulled from floodwaters early Saturday.

    First responders and the California National Guard rescued more than 50 people overnight. One video showed a member of the Guard helping a driver out of a car trapped by water up to their waists.

    “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,” wrote Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, on Twitter.

    Alejo called the flooding “massive,” saying the damage will take months to repair.

    The Pajaro River separates the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey in the area that flooded Saturday. Floodwaters that got into the region’s wells might be contaminated with chemicals, officials said, and residents were told not to drink or cook with tap water for fear of illness.

    Officials had been working along the levee in the hopes of shoring it up when it was breached around midnight Friday into Saturday. Crews began working to fix the levee around daybreak Saturday as residents slept in evacuation centers.

    Oliver Gonzalez, 12, told The Associated Press that he, his mother and his aunt were rescued around 5 a.m. Saturday in Parajo. He grabbed his laptop, cellphone and some important documents but so much was left behind in their rush to leave.

    “I’m kinda scared,” he said several hours later from an evacuation center in nearby Watsonville. “My mom’s car was left in the water.”

    Anais Rodriguez, 37, said first responders knocked on her home’s door shortly after midnight. Her family packed about four days’ worth of clothing and drove out to safety. She and her two children, her husband and her parents — along with their dog, Mila — arrived at the shelter about an hour later with few answers about what this would mean for their community going forward.

    Weather-related power outages affected more than 17,000 customers in Monterey County late Saturday, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Saturday said it was monitoring the situation in Pajaro.

    “Our thoughts are with everyone impacted and the state has mobilized to support the community,” the governor’s office wrote on Twitter.

    The Pajaro Valley is a coastal agricultural area known for growing strawberries, apples, cauliflower, broccoli and artichokes. National brands like Driscoll’s Strawberries and Martinelli’s are headquartered in the region.

    In 1995, the Pajaro River’s levees broke, submerging 2,500 acres (1,011 hectares) of farmland and the community of Pajaro. Two peopled died and the flooding caused nearly $100 million in damage. A state law, passed last year, advanced state funds for a levee project. It was scheduled to start construction in 2024.

    State Sen. John Laird, who spearheaded the law and represents the area, said the project is fully funded now but it just came down to bad timing with this year’s rains.

    “It’s tragic, we were so close to getting this done before any storms,” he said.

    This week’s storm marked the state’s 10th atmospheric river of the winter, storms that have brought enormous amounts of rain and snow to the state and helped lessen the drought conditions that had dragged on for three years. State reservoirs that had dipped to strikingly low levels are now well above the average for this time of year, prompting state officials to release water from dams to assist with flood control and make room for even more rain.

    Across the state on Saturday, Californians contended with drenching rains and rising water levels in the atmospheric river’s aftermath. In Tulare County, the sheriff ordered residents who live near the Tule River to evacuate, while people near the Poso Creek in Kern County were under an evacuation warning. The National Weather Service’s meteorologists issued flood warnings and advisories, begging motorists to stay off deluged roadways.

    In San Francisco, an 85-foot (25.91 meter) eucalyptus tree fell onto the Trocadero Clubhouse early Saturday morning. The 1892 clubhouse, a San Francisco historical landmark, was left severely damaged, with part of the roof crushed and the inside flooded.

    Funnel clouds were spotted in the Jamestown area — the heart of California’s Gold Rush — on Saturday afternoon and the weather service issued a tornado warning — later canceled — for the Sierra Nevada foothills as severe thunderstorms, hail and high winds blanketed the region. Another set of tornado warnings were briefly issued in Fresno Count y, nearly 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) south of Gold Country. Flash flooding warnings were in effect late Saturday in Tuolumne County, with roads submerged around Sonora and neighboring communities.

    There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

    Newsom has declared emergencies in 34 counties in recent weeks, and the Biden administration approved a presidential disaster declaration for some on Friday morning, a move that will bring more federal assistance. President Biden spoke with Newsom on Saturday to pledge the federal government’s support in California’s response to the emergency, the White House said.

    The atmospheric river, known as a “Pineapple Express” because it brought warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific from near Hawaii, was melting lower parts of the huge snowpack built in California’s mountains.

    Yet another atmospheric river is already in the forecast for early next week. State climatologist Michael Anderson said a third appeared to be taking shape over the Pacific and possibly a fourth.

    California appeared to be “well on its way to a fourth year of drought” before the early winter series of storms, Anderson said Friday. “We’re in a very different condition now,” he added.

    The National Weather Service on Saturday forecasted an intensified bout of rain and snow Monday through Wednesday, with considerable flooding possible along the state’s central coast, San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys and the southern Sierra Nevada foothills into midweek.

    Another round of heavy, wet snow is expected to hit the Sierras and areas of high elevation mid-week, the weather service said. Officials reported about 32 inches (81 centimeters) of snow had fallen by Saturday morning at the Mount Rose ski resort on the edge of Reno, Nevada.

    __

    Dazio reported from Los Angeles.

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  • Relentless winter brings pros, cons for Tahoe ski resorts

    Relentless winter brings pros, cons for Tahoe ski resorts

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    RENO, Nev. — Last winter, most ski resorts at Lake Tahoe had to postpone their usual November openings because there wasn’t enough snow.

    This season, several have been forced to close at times because there’s been too much.

    A relentless winter has dumped more than 50 feet (15 meters) of snow on mountain resorts around the lake over the past three months, along the California-Nevada line.

    The latest Sierra storm, packing more heavy snow, winds gusting in excess of 100 mph (160 kph) and even some flooding, forced about a half-dozen to shut down on Friday. At least three remained closed Saturday.

    Even when the resorts have been open for business, storms have prompted frequent closures of mountain highways and the main U.S. Interstate connecting San Francisco and Reno to Lake Tahoe atop the Sierra Nevada, making it nearly impossible at times for out-of-towners to make their way to the slopes.

    But locals who’ve been skiing at Tahoe for decades say any disruptions are offset by the premium, powdery snow conditions and the real prize: skiing through the end of May and possibly longer.

    “It’s heaven sent for a skier because I can ski until Memorial Day,” said Dan Lavely, 66, a Reno resident who’s been skiing for about 40 years.

    “The conditions have been fantastic. It’s the best I’ve had in eons,” he said.

    The resorts who cater to folks like him agree.

    “The storms have a little bit of a financial impact, but the snowstorms also drive visitation and we are able to stay open longer, so they counter balance each other,” said Patrick Lacey, a spokesman for Palisades Tahoe, a resort forced to close on Friday when one gust of wind reached 139 mph (224 kph).

    “We’re right up there with the biggest snowfall totals of the past 75 years,” he said.

    Another 32 inch (81 centimeters) of snow had fallen by Saturday at the Mt. Rose ski resort on the edge of Reno.

    The tail end of the storm was still wreaking havoc Saturday on California’s central coast, where more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings after a levee was breached by flooding from the latest atmospheric river to pummel the state.

    Friday and Saturday marked the third closure this year due to weather at three popular Tahoe resorts owned by Colorado-based Vail Resorts — Heavenly, Northstar California and Kirkwood.

    “If anything, here in Tahoe, we expect the unexpected,” Vail Resorts spokesperson Sara Roston said in an email to The Associated Press on Friday.

    During the 2021-22 season, “we delayed opening because we didn’t have enough snow,” Roston said.

    “Then in early December, we were hit with a ton of snow and saw some closures as a result,” she said. “It has been one wild winter this year; that is for sure.”

    The last storm, a week ago, forced the cancellation of the final day of the Nevada state high school ski championships at Mount Rose, which is halfway between Reno and Lake Tahoe.

    Chadd Bunker, of Sparks, Nevada, who frequents Mount Rose, said he’s heard some people grumbling about the series of storms that have sometimes kept them off the slopes.

    “Yeah, you can’t get there when it’s nasty, but that just means it’s going to be even better when you can get there,” said Bunker, 56, who’s been skiing since he was 5 years old.

    The University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab at Donner Pass, north of Lake Tahoe, reported earlier this month it had recorded the snowiest October-February period since 1970. The snowiest winter season there was 1951-52, with nearly 68 feet (812 inches, 21 meters).

    Palisades Tahoe, which averages 400 inches (10 meters) a year and registered 350 inches (9 meters) last year, had recorded 607 inches (15 meters) before the latest storm moved in on Friday. That’s still below the season record set in 2016-17.

    Lavely has a season pass at Palisades, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, so he’s able to work around the storms to still get his runs in.

    But he sympathizes with those making the trip from Sacramento or the Bay Area, who are at the mercy of woeful weather, including blizzard conditions that have shut down Interstate 80 for days at a time since Jan. 1.

    He said he’s spent as much time this year monitoring web cams of highways as he has the ones at individual resorts to check the slope conditions.

    “I-80 was closed three times last week. Another day, the traffic was so bad you couldn’t get there,” Lavely said, reflecting on the day it took him two hours to travel just 15 miles (24 kilometers) on the way out of Reno before he “finally gave up.”

    Todd Cummings, who started skiing in the 1980s in New England and now lives in Santa Cruz, California, has managed three trips to Tahoe resorts this winter despite the storms.

    “You can never be happy — too much, too little,” said Cummings, who grew up in Rhode Island.

    He doesn’t mind the travel challenges if they pay off in piles of fluffy snow on the mountain and quieter slopes.

    “I’ll deal with that any time,” he said. “You just need to be capable of driving in the snow, be used to four-wheel drive, chains.”

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  • Relentless winter brings pros, cons for Tahoe ski resorts

    Relentless winter brings pros, cons for Tahoe ski resorts

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    RENO, Nev. — Last winter, most ski resorts at Lake Tahoe had to postpone their usual November openings because there wasn’t enough snow.

    This season, several have been forced to close at times because there’s been too much.

    A relentless winter has dumped more than 50 feet (15 meters) of snow on mountain resorts around the lake over the past three months, along the California-Nevada line.

    The latest Sierra storm, packing more heavy snow, winds gusting in excess of 100 mph (160 kph) and even some flooding, forced about a half-dozen to shut down on Friday.

    Even when the resorts have been open for business, storms have prompted frequent closures of mountain highways and the main U.S. Interstate connecting San Francisco and Reno to Lake Tahoe atop the Sierra Nevada, making it nearly impossible at times for out-of-towners to make their way to the slopes.

    But locals who’ve been skiing at Tahoe for decades say any disruptions are offset by the premium, powdery snow conditions and the real prize: skiing through the end of May and possibly longer.

    “It’s heaven sent for a skier because I can ski until Memorial Day,” said Dan Lavely, 66, a Reno resident who’s been skiing for about 40 years.

    “The conditions have been fantastic. It’s the best I’ve had in eons,” he said.

    The resorts who cater to folks like him agree.

    “The storms have a little bit of a financial impact, but the snowstorms also drive visitation and we are able to stay open longer, so they counter balance each other,” said Patrick Lacey, a spokesman for Palisades Tahoe, a resort forced to close on Friday when one gust of wind reached 139 mph (224 kph).

    “We’re right up there with the biggest snowfall totals of the past 75 years,” he said.

    Friday marked the third time the slopes were closed due to weather at three other popular Tahoe resorts owned by Colorado-based Vail Resorts — Heavenly, Northstar California and Kirkwood.

    “If anything, here in Tahoe, we expect the unexpected,” Vail Resorts spokeswoman Sara Roston said in an email to The Associated Press on Friday.

    During the 2021-22 season, “we delayed opening because we didn’t have enough snow,” Roston said.

    “Then in early December, we were hit with a ton of snow and saw some closures as a result,” she said. “It has been one wild winter this year; that is for sure.”

    The last storm, a week ago, forced the cancellation of the final day of the Nevada state high school ski championships at Mount Rose, which is halfway between Reno and Lake Tahoe.

    Chadd Bunker, of Sparks, Nevada, who frequents Mount Rose, said he’s heard some people grumbling about the series of storms that have sometimes kept them off the slopes.

    “Yeah, you can’t get there when it’s nasty, but that just means it’s going to be even better when you can get there,” said Bunker, 56, who’s been skiing since he was 5 years old.

    The University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab at Donner Pass, north of Lake Tahoe, reported earlier this month it had recorded the snowiest October-February period since 1970. The snowiest winter season there was 1951-52, with nearly 68 feet (812 inches, 21 meters).

    Palisades Tahoe, which averages 400 inches (10 meters) a year and registered 350 inches (9 meters) last year, had recorded 607 inches (15 meters) before the latest storm moved in on Friday. That’s still below the season record set in 2016-17.

    Lavely has a season pass at Palisades, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, so he’s able to work around the storms to still get his runs in.

    But he sympathizes with those making the trip from Sacramento or the Bay Area, who are at the mercy of woeful weather, including blizzard conditions that have shut down Interstate 80 for days at a time since Jan. 1.

    He said he’s spent as much time this year monitoring web cams of highways as he has the ones at individual resorts to check the slope conditions.

    “I-80 was closed three times last week. Another day, the traffic was so bad you couldn’t get there,” Lavely said, reflecting on the day it took him two hours to travel just 15 miles (24 kilometers) on the way out of Reno before he “finally gave up.”

    Todd Cummings, who started skiing in the 1980s in New England and now lives in Santa Cruz, California, has managed three trips to Tahoe resorts this winter despite the storms.

    “You can never be happy — too much too little,” said Cummings, who grew up in Rhode Island.

    He doesn’t mind the travel challenges if they pay off in piles of fluffy snow on the mountain and quieter slopes.

    “I’ll deal with that any time,” he said. “You just need to be capable of driving in the snow, be used to four-wheel drive, chains.”

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  • New atmospheric river storm brings heavy rain to California

    New atmospheric river storm brings heavy rain to California

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    SAN FRANCISCO — A new atmospheric river brought heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds to California on Friday, raising the threat of flooding and disrupting travel.

    Flood advisories or warnings were issued by the National Weather Service for areas around the San Francisco Bay, the central coast and the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Southern California saw generally lighter rain.

    The atmospheric river, known as a “Pineapple Express” because it brought warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific from near Hawaii, was melting lower parts of the huge snowpack built in California’s mountains by nine atmospheric rivers early in the winter and later storms fueled by a blast of arctic air.

    The snowpack at high elevations is so massive it was expected to be able to absorb the rain, but snowmelt was expected at elevations below 4,000 feet (1,219 meters), forecasters said.

    As the storm approached, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared states of emergency in 21 counties in addition to earlier declarations for 13 counties. He requested a presidential emergency declaration to authorize federal assistance.

    California’s Department of Water Resources also activated its flood operations center.

    Evacuation warnings were issued in advance for various foothill and mountain communities that are prone to flooding and mudslides. An evacuation order was in place for a small number of central coast residents who live below a levee near Oceano in San Luis Obispo County.

    Water releases for flood control purposes were underway or planned for some reservoirs that were depleted during three years of drought and have been filling with the winter’s extraordinary rains and snowfall.

    Releases were scheduled to begin late Friday morning from the state’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Oroville, which collects water from the Feather River in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada in the northern Sacramento Valley.

    The lake level has risen about 178 feet since Dec. 1. The outflows are intended to ensure there is room for heavy runoff.

    Ted Craddock, deputy director of the State Water Project, on Thursday expressed confidence in the 1960s-era Oroville Dam, where thousands of people had to evacuate in 2017 after heavy runoff collapsed the main spillway and the emergency spillway began to erode.

    “The spillway has been reconstructed to modern standards, and we’re very confident that it will be able to pass the flows that are coming into Lake Oroville,” he said.

    Forecasters warned that mountain travel could be difficult to impossible during the latest storm. At high elevations, the storm was predicted to dump heavy snow, as much as 8 feet (2.4 meters) over several days.

    California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides about a third of the state’s water supply, is more than 180% of the April 1 average, when it is historically at its peak.

    Yet another atmospheric river is already in the forecast for early next week. State climatologist Michael Anderson said a third appeared to be taking shape over the Pacific and possibly a fourth.

    California appeared to be “well on its way to a fourth year of drought” before the early winter series of storms, Anderson said. “We’re in a very different condition now,” he said.

    So much snow has fallen in the Sierra and other mountain ranges that residents are still struggling to dig out days after earlier storms.

    In the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles a late February storm reached blizzard status. Roofs collapsed, cars were buried and roads were blocked.

    This week, firefighter-paramedics began delivering prescription medications to residents who are still unable to leave their homes, said fire Capt. Steve Concialdi, a spokesperson for San Bernardino County’s emergency response.

    On the far north coast, Humboldt County authorities organized an emergency response to feed starving cattle stranded by snow.

    Cal Fire and U.S. Coast Guard helicopters began dropping hay bales to cattle in remote mountain fields last weekend, and then the California National Guard was called in to expand the effort.

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  • New atmospheric river storm barrels toward California

    New atmospheric river storm barrels toward California

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California braced Thursday for the arrival of another atmospheric river that forecasters warned will bring heavy rain, strong winds, thunderstorms and the threat of flooding to a state still digging out from earlier storms.

    The flood threat will come from the combination of rain and melting of parts of the huge snowpack built in California’s mountains by nine atmospheric rivers early in the winter and later storms fueled by a blast of arctic air.

    The new atmospheric river is a type known as a “Pineapple Express” because it is a deep tap of warm subtropical moisture stretching over the Pacific to Hawaii. Its greatest impacts were expected in northern and central California.

    The snowpack at high elevations is so massive it should be able absorb the rain, forecasters said. But elevations below 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) will see melting and runoff. The National Weather Service characterized the flood threat as “moderate.”

    At high elevations the storm was predicted to dump heavy snow, as much as 8 feet (2.4 meters) in some locations.

    California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides about a third of the state’s water supply, is more than 180% of the average on April 1, when it is historically at its peak.

    So much snow has fallen in the Sierra and other mountain ranges that residents are still struggling to dig out days after earlier storms.

    Roofs collapsed, cars were buried and roads were blocked. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in 13 of California’s 58 counties beginning March 1.

    In the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles a late February storm reached blizzard status. Mountain towns like Lake Arrowhead were buried.

    “We’ve been through many a snowstorm but nothing of this amount, that’s for sure,” resident Alan Zagorsky, 79, said Wednesday as a crew shoveled his driveway. “Right now, they’re trying to find a place they can put this stuff.”

    In nearby Crestline, Don Black watched as a team wielding shovels cleared his neighbor’s property.

    “This is the worst storm I’ve seen in 34 winters,” Black said.

    On the state’s far north coast, Humboldt County authorities have organized an emergency response to feed starving cattle stranded by snow.

    Cal Fire and U.S. Coast Guard helicopters began dropping hay bales to cattle in remote mountain fields last weekend and then the California National Guard was called in to expand the effort.

    Requests for help came from about 30 ranchers, according to Diana Totten, an area fire chief. The hay is being paid for by the ranchers, who provide information on how many head of cattle need to be fed and where they were expected to be located.

    “We won’t know until the snow melts how many cattle have died due to these conditions,” Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said in a statement. “But I know this for certain, if we don’t act, there’s going to be way more that do die and it will be a catastrophe for our county.”

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  • Volunteers in mountain towns dig out snow-stuck Californians

    Volunteers in mountain towns dig out snow-stuck Californians

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    LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. — After a blizzard swept through Southern California mountains, 79-year-old Alan Zagorsky found himself shut inside his home with snow blocking the door and stairways leading out.

    He and his wife had enough food to get through the 10 days until volunteers finally arrived Wednesday to help clear roughly 10 feet (3 meters) of snow piled up outside their house in Lake Arrowhead. They had been running low on blood pressure medication, but teams had come a day earlier to resupply them in the upscale mountain community where Zagorsky has lived for more than two decades.

    “We’ve been through many a snowstorm but nothing of this amount, that’s for sure,” he said, while a crew shoveled his driveway in the mountains east of Los Angeles. “Right now, they’re trying to find a place they can put this stuff.”

    In a once-a-generation weather event, staggering amounts of snow fell in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountain ranges in late February, where thousands of people live in wooded enclaves. The areas are popular destinations for hikers and skiers who arrive by twisting, steep highways that have been frequently closed because of icy conditions.

    Snow piled high above many homes’ first-floor windows and residents who could get out trekked on foot to buy groceries from stores with near-empty shelves or picked up boxes of donated food at a distribution center.

    Roofs collapsed, cars were buried and roads were blocked. The power went out in many communities and authorities reported possible gas leaks and storm-related fires. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in 13 of California’s 58 counties beginning March 1, including in San Bernardino County.

    On Wednesday, dozens of volunteers with the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Team Rubicon fanned out across the mountain communities to clear buried properties. A team of 10 used shovels and snow blowers to clean walkways and driveways belonging to Zagorsky and his neighbors, who had been confined to their homes for more than a week.

    In Lake Arrowhead, home to 9,700 people and at an elevation of 5,175 feet (1,575 meters), many roads were plowed Tuesday for the first time in 10 days, and some residents grumbled about the slow response. San Bernardino County officials estimated more than 90% of county roads were plowed as of Tuesday night.

    About 8 miles (13 kilometers) to the west, along a winding two-lane road, volunteers were also digging out homes in Crestline, a working class mountain community of 9,300 residents.

    Don Black watched as a team wielding shovels cleared his neighbor’s property. He marveled at the massive 12-foot (3.6-meter) snow berms left behind by plows along the roads.

    “This is the worst storm I’ve seen in 34 winters,” Black said, standing near a mound of snow that completely covered his pickup truck.

    A team of state firefighters shoveled off the roof of the town library. A line of residents walked along freshly plowed roads to pick up boxes of food at a distribution center.

    Nearby, Big Bear City received more than 6.6 feet (2 meters) of snow in a seven-day period, the most since those records have been tracked, said meteorologist Alex Tardy, with the National Weather Service in San Diego.

    As the state continued to dig out from the previous storms, another one was on the way. Forecasters said an atmospheric river taking aim at northern and central California was expected to arrive as early as Thursday morning. The San Bernardino Mountain communities were likely to be spared another major snowfall.

    The warm storm was raising concern about a rapid snowmelt of portions of the state’s substantial snowpack. Authorities said creeks, streams and rivers could rise quickly, raising the threat of flooding.

    ___

    Taxin reported from Orange County, California. Associated Press reporter Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.

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  • Landslide in Indonesia kills at least 11; dozens missing

    Landslide in Indonesia kills at least 11; dozens missing

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    A landslide caused by torrential rain has killed at least 11 people and left dozens of others missing on an island in Indonesia’s remote Natuna regency

    JAKARTA, Indonesia — A landslide caused by torrential rain killed at least 11 people and left dozens of others missing on an island in Indonesia’s remote Natuna regency on Monday, disaster officials said.

    Tons of mud fell from surrounding hills onto houses in Serasan village in Natuna. Rescuers recovered at least 11 bodies and authorities fear that the death toll will rise, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.

    “Many people who need help have not been reached because we still have difficulty accessing the affected areas,” Muhari said, adding that authorities estimated that about 50 people were still missing.

    Dozens of soldiers, police and volunteers joined the search in the village, on a remote island surrounded by choppy waters and high waves in the Natuna group at the edge of the South China Sea, said Junainah, who heads emergency relief operations at the local disaster agency.

    Downed communications lines and bad weather were hampering the rescue efforts, said Junainah, who uses only one name.

    Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or in fertile flood plains.

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