Flooding fears heighten as another powerful storm takes aim at Northern California
Juan Alvarez reassures his girlfriend, Sarah Hendrix, that all she lost “is just stuff” and that everything will be okay after helping her move out of her flooded home in Maxwell, Calif.
Reporting from MAXWELL, CALIF. — As Southern California dug out of damaging winter storms, there was growing anxiety in Northern California that another round of punishing rain and snow forecast for this week would further tax the region’s already strained flood control systems.
Parts of Northern California are already on track to have the wettest winter ever recorded, and that has placed strain on river, dam, levees and other water works in places including the Central Valley that are prone to flooding.
“(For) almost all of Northern California we are going to be telling people to get ready for area flooding,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Rasch. “It just doesn’t take much rain to cause many problems ... which is only going to exacerbate all the current situations going on.”
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Many Northern and Central California dams are close to capacity thanks to all the rain. And some communities experienced flooding.
Water was still a foot high in Maxwell, a small rural town in Northern California’s Colusa County, on Saturday morning. Crews had to evacuate 100 people in the town about 2 a.m. because of flooding, some by boat.
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“At least 50 older wood-framed and stucco homes took in water,” said Jim Saso, assistant sheriff of Colusa County. No reported injuries were reported.
As debris-laden water the color of chocolate milk rushed past Bill Barrett’s driveway, he nodded toward a row of hills in the distance and said, “The runoff of heavy rains slid down those hills last night and turned this place into a bathtub.”
The trouble started at about 4 a.m. Saturday when Barrett, a retired firefighter, was awakened by a report issued from the emergency radio scanner by his bedside, about law enforcement assisting a neighbor out of his home.
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“I jumped out of bed to help,” said Barrett, 80, a 47-year resident of this small agricultural community.
Shaking his head, he added, “There have been floods in this town before. But nothing like this one.”
Blanca Velasquez, 31, was sloshing ankle-deep up and down Maxwell’s flooded San Francisco Street on Saturday afternoon with an iPhone pressed to her ear, trying to find a clear signal to reach worried friends and relatives.
Like many neighbors, she was awakened early morning by sheriff’s deputies banging on the front door and yelling, “It’s flooding! Get out! Get out!”
“We all threw on some clothes and galoshes and headed to the door,” Velasquez said. “When I stepped outside and took a look around, the streets were rivers.”
She and her three siblings jumped in their pickups and “drove off in the dark searching for dry ground.”
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A block away, she said, “one lady was floating down Orange Street in a boat.”
Maxwell is about 50 miles from Oroville, which for the last week has been the scene of a national drama as both spillways at the Oroville Dam were damaged, sparking fears of a catastrophic flood and forcing the evacuation of more than 100,000 people.
Officials were able to reduce the water levels at the dam this week and say they are prepared for the new storms.
As the sun rose over the beleaguered Oroville Dam on Saturday, an aerial lineman performed the high-risk task of cutting power lines over the facility’s damaged main spillway while attached to the end of a cable dangling from a helicopter.
Hundreds of feet below, construction workers manning trucks, cranes, skip loaders and dredging equipment gathered near a pool of turbulent murky water churning at the bottom of that spillway, preparing to remove a mountain of debris piled up beneath the surface.
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An aerial view of the water flowing out of the Oroville Dam main spillway, in Oroville, Calif., on Tuesday, February 21, 2017.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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An aerial view of the water flowing out of the Oroville Dam’s main spillway on Feb. 21. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Reduced water releases at the Oroville Dam have made damage to its main spillway more visible. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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With a reduced flow on Sunday, most of the water being released from the Oroville Dam is not going down the spillway; it has broken through and is flowing down the hillside. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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With a reduced flow on Sunday, most of the water being released from the Oroville Dam is not going down the spillway, it’s broken through and is going down the hillside.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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With a reduced flow on Sunday, most of the water being released from the Oroville Dam is not going down the spillway, it’s broken through and is going down the hillside.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Juan Alvarez reassures his girlfriend, Sarah Hendrix, after helping her move out of her home in rural Maxwell. Water was a foot high and crews had to evacuate 100 people because of flooding-- some by boat.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Ron Chambers lets Duke out of his crate for the first time in hours since the flooding began n Maxwell, Calif. on Saturday.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Kevin Anfinson and other volunteers help shovel the muddy sediment that has built up in the salmon raceway at the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Fernando Martinez and his mother, not pictured, wade through a road in Gridley, Calif., flooded by the Feather River as it continues to swell from the water being let out of Lake Oroville.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A man in a 4x4 truck turns around on Gridley Road after having second thoughts about making it across the flooded road, which had been closed.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Randy Boheim packs up his tools and emergency supplies in anticipation of having to evacuate his whole family as floodwaters creep closer to his home in an Oroville, Calif., mobile home park. The nearby Feather River continued to swell from the water being let out of Lake Oroville ahead of this weekend’s storm.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A plantation in Oroville, Calif., sits in floodwaters as the Feather River continues to swell from the water being let out of Lake Oroville ahead of this weekend’s storm.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Helicopters ferry sand and rocks to the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway reconstruction project in Oroville, Calif., ahead of coming rains.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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California Water Service district manager Toni Ruggle surveys the Feather River at Bedrock Park downstream from the Oroville Dam.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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McKenna Harvey, 9, left, Kylie Atteberry, 11, and Brooklyn Atteberry, 7, hold signs thanking workers in the repair effort at the Oroville Dam.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A helicopter flies over as water flows from the main spillway at Lake Oroville. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Reconstruction continues in a race to shore up the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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As rain clouds gather, friends from left, Johnny Eroh, Cody Balmer, Kristien Bravo and Jerel Bruhn hang out by the flooded Feather river in the Bedrock neighborhood of Oroville, Calif., last week. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Evacuees at the Bangor Community Hall in Bangor, Calif., listen to Butte County sheriff’s deputies in February as the mandatory evacuation order was lifted. An evacuation advisory was lifted Wednesday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Evacuees at the Bangor Community Hall get the news from Butte County sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Heath that the evacuation order has been lifted.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Evacuee Sharon Dalton, right, hugs Raiden Ellis, 10 months, and Chris Ellis as they say their goodbyes as she leaves the Bangor Community Hall in Bangor, Calif., on Tuesday.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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David McGlamery returns to his Oroville home with his belongings after the evacuation order was lifted. The family had to retreat to Chico, where they initially stayed at a Walmart parking lot with other evacuees. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Bill Tirey helps family members move back into their home in the Bedrock neighborhood of Oroville near the Feather River after evacuation orders were lifted.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Maria Alancar returns home to greets her pet pig Bacon, who was left behind when the family moved to higher ground in Honcut, Calif.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Sulet Lopez, 21, left, Melissa Mendoza, 3, and Yeanet Lopez, 18, pack up their car at the Bangor Community Hall in Bangor, Calif., to head home after the evacuation order was lifted.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Erica Stenholm, left, Ronnie Vaughan, and Brooklyn Jackson, 7, unpack their car upon returning home after the evacuation order had been lifted in Oroville.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Jonah Avina, left, and his wife, Eileen, pray before lunch at the Maranatha Mennonite Fellowship in Bangor, Calif., on Tuesday. The Bangor-area Mennonites are hosting several immigrant families evacuated from the nearby town of Honcut.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Evacuee Estafani Reynoso, left, colors with Mennonite children at the Maranatha Mennonite Fellowship in Bangor, Calif.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Crews work on a damaged section of the emergency spillway at Lake Oroville on Monday. (Josh Edelson / AFP/ Getty Images)
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An Oroville property is flooded on Monday as thousands were under evactuation orders.
(Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)
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The Marysville cemetery underwater along the Feather River.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Nirmal Singh, a Sikh priest, conducts a morning prayer ritual as evacuees sleep in the background at the Shri Guru Ravidass, a Sikh temple that has opened its doors for evacuees of the Oroville Dam crisis in Rio Linda, Calif.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Kamlesh Nahar, far left, talks to fellow evacuees at the Shri Guru Ravidass Temple.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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Maria Lopez reads on her smartphone as she spends a second night in her father’s car in the parking lot of the Bangor Community Hall.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Sharon Dalton finds a quiet spot under a table as she spends a second night with her dog Cruiser inside the Bangor Community Hall.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Verna Chadwick and 10-month-old son Raiden Ellis during a second night in the Bangor Community Hall.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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The emergency spillway, left, and the damaged main spillway at Lake Oroville are seen in an aerial photo Monday.
(Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images)
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A dump truck crosses the primary spillway to deliver boulders to the damaged emergency spillway at Lake Oroville on Monday evening.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Helicopters place large rocks on the damaged emergency spillway at Lake Oroville on Monday evening.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Around-the-clock monitoring continues on the damaged primary spillway at Lake Oroville on Monday evening.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Water rushes down a spillway at the Oroville Dam. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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California Department of Fish and Game wardens view the damaged spillway on Monday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Bill O’Kelley, 86, and wife Doris O’Kelley, 84, of Oroville sit near a flagpole Monday at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds evacuation center in Chico, Calif.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Coua Tha, of Oroville prepares a meal for her family in the parking lot at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds evacuation center in Chico, Calif.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Desiree Garcia and daughter Kay’lee Pearl Garcia, 3, of Oroville look over donated clothing Monday at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds evacuation center in Chico, Calif.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Members of Oroville’s Jordan Crossing Mission pray with a volunteer service member Monday at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds evacuation shelter in Chico, Calif.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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The swollen Feather River flows through Oroville, Calif., on Monday.
(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)
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A building is submerged in Riverbend Park as more water is released from Lake Oroville.
(JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
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Siblings Zach Soto, 11, left, and Gabby Soto, 13, keep an eye on the Feather River along a railroad bridge in Oroville, Calif., on Monday. The family decided to stay in Oroville as they live on high ground near downtown.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Water flows down the damaged main spillway of the Oroville Dam at 55,000 cubic feet per second into the Feather River. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Water from Lake Oroville flows down the damaged main spillway.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Water from Lake Oroville flows down the emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam toward the Feather River.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Pacific Gas & Electric crews aided by a helicopter removed transmission lines and insulators from towers standing in the bed of the emergency spillway of Lake Oroville.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A rainbow appears over Feather River as water cascades down the damaged spillway at Lake Oroville Dam.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Water cascades down the spillway below Oroville Dam. The water is being released by authorities to avoid flooding at Lake Oroville because of recent heavy rain. (David Butow / For The Times)
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Pacific Gas and Electric Co. crews move two electric transmission line towers on the bank of Feather River as a precaution if the Lake Oroville Dam emergency spillway needs to be used.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A California Highway Patrol cruiser patrols Lake Oroville Dam, which is closed to the public due to the damaged spillway.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Water cascades down the spillway below the Oroville dam. The water is being released by authorities to ease flooding in Lake Oroville because of recent heavy rain.
(David Butow / For the Times)
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Butte Country Sheriff Kory L. Honea speaks with department of water and power workers at an overlook as the observe runoff from the Oroville Dam.
(David Butow / For the Times)
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Water trickles down as workers inspect part of the Lake Oroville spillway failure in Oroville, Calif.
(Randy Pench / Associated Press)
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A boat launch at Bidwell Canyon is still hundreds of yards above the current lake level on Jan. 21, 2016.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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California State Park Ranger Bryan Taylor searches for signs of disturbance or theft as California’s severe drought conditions are revealing historic artifacts at Lake Oroville, June 21, 2014.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Severe drought conditions are evident as a family treks across a long path back to their car at Lake Oroville, June 21, 2014.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Houseboats are dwarfed by steep banks that show the water level down 160 feet from the high water mark at the Bidwell Bar Suspension Bridge over Lake Oroville on June 21, 2014.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Houseboats at Bidwell Canyon Marina at Lake Oroville, January 21, 2016.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
At the same time, state Department of Water Resources engineers began incrementally decreasing the flow of water in the spillway from 70,000 cubic feet per second to 55,000 cfs to give crews room to remove the estimated 150,000 square yards of debris.
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It was all part of the effort to pump enough water out of the lake to absorb runoff from incoming storms and to keep the lake from overflowing as it did last weekend. That overflow badly eroded an emergency spillway and sent debris flowing into a pool at the bottom, forcing the closure of an underground hydroelectric plant.
As of Saturday, the estimated costs of shoring up the dam’s main spillway and adjacent emergency spillway had climbed to roughly $10 million, according to a report reviewed by The Times.
The area will still be under a flood watch Monday, said Rasch, the meteorologist.
What’s next for Los Angeles
Though Southern California might see scattered showers Sunday and Monday and possibly another storm next weekend, rains as heavy as this weekend’s are unlikely, said National Weather Service meteorologist Carol Smith.
“A storm of this magnitude would be something that we see every five to 10 years” in Southern California, Smith said.
More than 100,000 people across Southern California lost power, and 50,000 Los Angeles County residents remained without power Saturday afternoon.
A San Bernardino County fire truck plunged off the southbound 15 Freeway just south of Highway 138 when the right lane and shoulder caved in after heavy rains in the Cajon Pass.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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In San Bernardino County, two lanes of the southbound Interstate 15 near Highway 138 in the Cajon Pass remained closed Saturday after a section of the road, weakened by rushing water, collapsed Friday night, toppling a fire engine into the creek below. Caltrans estimates emergency repairs on the 15 will cost $3 million.
The crew of three firefighters managed to escape when the engine’s back tires began sinking into the road before the road gave way, San Bernardino County Fire Capt. Mike McClintock said.
Amtrak suspended service Saturday morning between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo because of mudslides in the Santa Barbara area, officials said. They hoped to resume service Saturday night once crews finish removing debris from the tracks, Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Justin Jacobs said in an email.
In the San Fernando Valley, two cars fell into a giant sinkhole Friday night. One occupant was briefly trapped but was rescued unharmed by Los Angeles firefighters.
Maggie Prvinic, who lives near the sinkhole, said she was looking out the window of her family’s second-floor apartment when she saw the second car fall into the sinkhole.
Prvinic, who is expecting another child in two weeks, said she was concerned that the sinkhole might threaten her apartment building. “Do I need to evacuate? I’m scared the ground is fragile and the sinkhole will expand,” she said.
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City officials said the sinkhole, at Woodbridge Street and Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Studio City, was probably caused by a combination of excessive rain and a possible sewer failure.
City crews and emergency contractors were working Saturday to shore up the sinkhole, which could take several days to repair.
At least five fatalities have been attributed to the storm.
On Friday, a 55-year-old man was electrocuted by a downed power line Friday in Sherman Oaks, and rescuers found a dead person inside a submerged vehicle in Victorville.
Two passengers died in separate crashes on rain-slick Interstate 15 in Mira Mesa and City Heights on Friday, the California Highway Patrol said.
The drivers involved in the collisions were suspected of driving too fast, CHP Officer Jake Sanchez said. “In these types of conditions, speed plays a huge factor because if you drive fast it’s very easy to lose control,” he said.
Swift-water rescues also continued Friday and Saturday.
Santa Ana police rescued a mother and her 8-year-old child after they fell into the Santa Ana River on Saturday afternoon, as well as a man who had jumped in to try and save them.
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At Arroyo Conejo in Thousand Oaks, law enforcement rescued three men on Friday afternoon and found the body of a drowning victim in the creek Saturday morning, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Det. Tim Lohman.
The area is a common hiking spot, but it’s closed during extreme weather.
“When we have two days of rain like we did … these rivers or washes or arroyos are unpredictable,” Lohman said. “This swift water can carry somebody away or sweep them off their feet if they get close enough.”
Evacuation orders were lifted early Saturday in Duarte, where mudflows threatened dozens of homes Friday night. The city had erected concrete and wood barriers to protect neighborhoods after wildfires last summer made the area vulnerable to mudslides.
But some residents decided to remain.
“There’s no need to go,” said Mike Shane as he stood in front of his house Saturday morning and watched as crews scooped up the thin layer of mud that covered his sidewalk. “I want to be here with my house and dog.”
Louis Sahagún is a former Los Angeles Times staff writer who covered issues ranging from religion, culture and the environment to crime, politics and water. He was on the team of L.A. Times writers that earned the Pulitzer Prize in public service for a series on Latinos in Southern California and the team that was a finalist in 2015 for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news. He is a former board member of CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California and author of the book “Master of the Mysteries: The Life of Manly Palmer Hall.”
Sonali Kohli is a former Los Angeles Times reporter. A product of Southern California, she grew up in Diamond Bar and graduated from UCLA. She worked as a metro reporter for the Orange County Register and as a reporter covering education and diversity for Quartz before joining The Times in 2015.
Former Los Angeles Times staff writer Melissa Etehad is an Iranian American who enjoys writing about national and international issues. She received her master’s in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in international affairs from UC San Diego and has reported from the Middle East and Europe. She previously worked at Al Jazeera English and the Washington Post’s foreign desk, where she covered the intersections of politics, religion and gender. She’s a native Farsi speaker.
