California Floods Kill Two, Evacuate Thousands
The flooded town of Watsonville in central California on Saturday.
The new storm that hit California caused massive flooding, including the collapse of a levee on the Pajaro River on Saturday after killing two and forcing thousands to evacuate.
We were hoping to avoid it, but the worst case scenario happened with the Pajaro River overflowing and the levee breaking around midnight [on Friday night into Saturday], Luis Alejo, a county official, tweeted on Saturday. Monterey, located on the coast in central California.
The California National Guard's Twitter account showed footage of rescues of residents in their cars, trapped by the impressive floods.
At least one road was literally washed out Friday in a small community in Santa Cruz County, just north of Monterey County.
On Friday, the Director of Emergency Services Governor of California, Nancy Ward, had announced that the storm had unfortunately caused […] two deaths.
These floods were caused by yet another storm that swept over the California, already the victim of a particularly rainy winter in recent weeks.
Up to 23 centimeters of precipitation were expected in places. -woman.jpg” media=”(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 99999px)”/>
A woman stands on the roof of her truck entirely submerged in water as she waits for firefighters to rescue her in Corralitos, California.
This rain, coming from a rather warm depression, was likely to melt part of the exceptional snowpack accumulated over the past three months, causing runoff that is impossible to contain for the waterways of this region. State in the west of the country.
US President Joe Biden on Friday approved a declaration of a state of emergency in California to facilitate the ;federal state aid.
Numerous evacuation orders had been issued, particularly in northern California, which was also affected.
< p class="e-p">This storm is fed, like most others this winter, by an atmospheric river, a gigantic corridor of rain that carries water vapor stored in the tropics, often around ;Hawaii, earning them the nickname Pineapple Express.
In January, a series of storms caused a great number of floods, landslides and falling trees, resulting in the death of 20 people.
