New Year Brings High Winds, Rain and More Flooding Woes

The first storm of the new year brought rain and high winds to an already soaked and battered Northern California.

According to the Department of Water Resources, area waterways held up well Sunday, even after some areas received as much as six inches of rain from two winter storms this weekend.

Despite the generally optimistic outlook, some area communities are dealing with flood concerns.
Residents of the small community of Collinsville south of Rio Vista were evacuated after waters topped a levee on the south edge of town.

Solano County Sheriff's officials ordered the mandatory evacuation at 3 p.m. Sunday. The entire population, approximately 40 to 50 people, were moved to a shelter set up at Rio Vista High School. The power is out in much of Rio Vista. Crews are working to restore service.

A Department of Water Resources spokesman said repair crews struggled with high winds Sunday, making only limited progress in patching the kevee. Local reclamation district inspectors will reassess the levee's condition Monday.

Meanwhile, Twitchell Island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta northwest of Stockton has flooded after water flowed over the top of a levee. Its handful of residents have also been evacuated.

Near Wilton in Sacramento County, a 60-foot portion of levee west of State Route 99 gave way Sunday, flooding a mostly uninhabited rural area, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

Winds became a major concern Sunday from the latest winter storm to hit Northern California. With winds gusts up to 65 mph in some areas, the National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for southern Sacramento valley, northern San Joaquin valley as well as the Delta and Motherlode areas through midnight Sunday.

Across the state, nearly a million PG&E customers lost power. The situation is so severe that crews from out of state have been called in to help restore service. By Monday morning 96,000 customers throughout Northern and Central California still had no service, including 8,000 residents in the outlying Sacramento area.

In the Sacramento area, 10,000 SMUD customers still had no power by Monday morning. The utility sent out 25 crews to restore electricity.

Despite the trouble areas, Sunday's storm was less ferocious than the most powerful storm that battered Northern California early Saturday morning, causing a number of rivers and streams to rise to flood stage.

Saturday's storm brought high winds and up to four inches of rain to some Central Valley and foothill locations.

When the waters were at their height on Saturday, flood warnings were in place for Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Solano, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Flooding in the Sacramento area prompted county officials to declare a state of local emergency, which cleared the way for the county to recieve aid and funding reimbursement at the state level.

The upper Sacramento River reached flood stage in several areas of Tehama, Butte and Colusa counties. However, river levels in Sacramento County, although high, never exceeded safe levels. At the I Street Bridge in Sacramento the river never got higher than two feet below the flood level.

The American River ran even lower, never rising beyond nine feet under flood level at the H Street Bridge.

The Cosumnes proved the most troublesome of the Sacramento area rivers, rising to more than a foot above flood level Saturday night. The river caused flooding at Sloughhouse and several other locations.

The danger from the Cosumnes River prompted authorities to order evacuations Saturday in Wilton. Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies went door-to-door to notify those living in threatened areas that they needed to leave their homes.

Despite a few incidents of flooding, officials said the flood control system worked as planned, with plenty of capacity to deal with the heavy rainfall.

The storm took at least one life. An elderly Vacaville man was killed when he was struck by a falling tree limb while walking on the creek trail near Beelard Park.

The storm also made for some dramatic rescues. Early Saturday afternoon a female motorist became stranded after driving into deep water at Walerga and PFE roads on the Sacramento-Placer county line. After standing in the partially submerged bed of the pickup for nearly an hour, the woman was rescued by a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District helicopter crew, who plucked her to safety. Video of the rescue can be seen at the link above.

The helicopter rescue was the second of the day for Metro Fire crews. Earlier they had to rescue the occupants of an SUV that became caught in the waters of Deer Creek, which were flowing over Scott Road in eastern Sacramento County. Deer Creek crested about a foot over flood stage, but has since receded.

The storm caused fairly extensive flooding in Solano County, with westbound Interstate 80 being shut down and dozens of Vacaville homes being inundated.

Area creeks caused a number of tense moments. For instance, at one point the waters of the Cache Creek in Yolo County crested at nearly nearly three feet above flood stage.

Arcade Creek in Carmichael crested Saturday at four feet above flood stage at Winding Way and a foot over flood stage at Watt Avenue. The creek flooded a portion of Del Paso Park and covered a section of Auburn Boulevard.

Linda Creek in Roseville caused problems for residents of the Champion Oaks neighborhood when it overflowed its banks, flooding one home and threatening a number of others.