California flooding: More storms forecast for weekend as experts warn heavy rain won’t fix drought

Death toll likely to rise in California as deluge and flash floods set to continue

Drone video of flooded Felton in Santa Cruz County

California is bracing for more extreme weather this weekend, when two more storms barrel into the state on Friday and over the weekend.

The National Weather Service is forecasting heavy rain and flooding in the northern parts of the state on Saturday and into early Sunday morning, urging residents late on Thursday to “stay weather aware and prepare now”.

Since the start of the year, California has been hammered by a succession of storms with northwestern and central California already soaked by between 10 and 20 inches in the last two weeks alone.

While the heavy rain has started to raise reservoir levels, experts say it will take far more to reverse the effects of years of drought.

At least 18 people have now died in incidents linked to the extreme weather with the body of a 43-year-old woman discovered in a submerged vehicle in Sonoma County on Wednesday.

Near the city of Paso Robles, five-year-old Kyle Doan, swept away in the floodwaters when he and his mother Lindsey Doan got stuck in their car, is still missing.

Kyle’s father said that his wife unbuckled their son and the pair climbed out of the sinking car when it got stuck.

“He was calm. He was trying to say, ‘Stay calm, Mom,” he said. “She was doing her best.”

Key Points

• Drenching California storms put dent in drought
• New storm map shows more heavy rainfall for California
• Death toll climbs to 18 as woman’s body found in submerged car
• Parents describe horror of losing missing 5-year-old child Kyle Doan
• California suffers 955 mudslides and flash floods in two weeks as relentless storms continue

[12 January 2023 13:00 · Rachel Sharp]

Woman’s body found in submerged car in Sonoma County

At least 18 people have now died in incidents linked to the extreme weather with the body of a 43-year-old woman discovered in a submerged vehicle in Sonoma County.

The victim Daphne Fontino had made a final desperate 911 call as her car became trapped in the floodwaters one day earlier.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said that search and rescue teams made the grim discovery along the 6000 block of Trenton-Healdsburg Road, Forestville, on Wednesday morning.

“Our deepest condolences to her family and friends,” the department said in a statement.

[12 January 2023 13:20 · Rachel Sharp]

California suffers 955 mudslides and flash floods in two weeks

Parts of California have received over half their annual rainfall in the past two weeks as the state continues to be bombarded by heavy downpours, howling winds, and snow.

A relentless parade of atmospheric rivers has drenched chunks of the state from the ritzy coastal enclaves on the fringes of Los Angeles to northern wine country and mountain passes.

A staggering 955 flood, flash flood, or mudslides have been reported to local offices of the National Weather Service, the agency reported on Wednesday.

Louise Boyle has more:

[12 January 2023 13:40 · Rachel Sharp]

WATCH: Terrifying moment mother and daughter rescued from sinkhole

Terrifying footage has captured the moment a mother and daughter had to be rescued from a sinkhole in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.

Intense flooding caused a sinkhole to open up on Monday night, swallowing two cars.

A mother and daughter were pulled to safety from an SUV.

Watch below:

[12 January 2023 14:00 · Rachel Sharp]

The search for missing 5-year-old Kyle Doan continues

The search for a five-year-old boy is now entering its third day, after he was swept away by raging floodwaters that continue to batter the state of California.

Kyle Doan was last seen on Monday morning when he and his mother became stranded in their vehicle near San Miguel.

Authorities say that Cal Fire responded to a 911 call to help a vehicle that had become stuck in the San Marcos Creek creekbed.

Graeme Massie and Rachel Sharp report.

[12 January 2023 14:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

NWS confirms tornado struck early Tuesday in northern San Joaquin Valley

The National Weather Service in Sacramento confirmed on Wednesday that destruction in Calaveras County early on Tuesday morning was caused by a small tornado.

An EF1 tornado occurred at around 4.10am local time, touching down near a small reservoir. Though classified as “weak” still produced 90mph winds and caused “extensive tree damage to white oak and pines trees”, according to a press release from NWS.

The tornado is just one small part of the severe weather that has lashed California for much of this month.

On the same morning as the tornado struck, severe thunderstorms swept through the San Joaquin Valley with winds strong enough to pick up a large horse barn near Oakdale in Stanislaus County and drag it over a five-foot fence. Neighbouring properties had minor roof damage and wind speeds are thought to have peaked at 75mph.

The NWS says that a warning was sent out to residents with a 17-minute lead time advising that straight-line winds and tornadoes were possible from the severe thunderstorms in the area.

[12 January 2023 14:50 · Oliver O'Connell]

Gavin Newsom hints at link between floods and the climate crisis

During a visit to badly-impacted Santa Cruz county on Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom hinted at a link between California’s extreme weather and the climate crisis.

“The dries are getting a lot drier the last three years, and the wets are getting a lot wetter. This weather whiplash — is that the new reality?” he said, according to NBC News.

California has been in a state of “megadrought” for the past two decades, intensified by the impacts of global heating, according to UCLA research last year.

The study also found that it could take several years of high precipitation to overcome the mega-drought.

“It’s extremely unlikely that this drought can be ended in one wet year,” UCLA geographer Park Williams said at the time.

[12 January 2023 15:20 · Oliver O'Connell]

Cleaning up, while preparing for next onslaught

Laurie Morse shoveled wet sand into bags in the pouring rain Wednesday, preparing to stack them along her garage in a last-ditch effort to keep out a rising creek on California’s central coast, as the storm-ravaged state braced for another round of lashing rains and damaging winds.

Morse’s roof was leaking, and along with her neighbors near Santa Cruz, she’s spent every day of 2023 trying to figure out how to keep her house dry after an unrelenting onslaught of violent weather caused widespread damage over the past two weeks. Cars were submerged, trees uprooted and roofs blown off homes.

(AP)

While the rain eased in many areas, thunderstorms led yet another atmospheric river into the northern half of the state and forecasters said the latest system would be followed by more storms this weekend and next week. From the San Francisco Bay Area down to Los Angeles, Californians had little time to rest between assessing damage from the last storm and preparing for the next.

Earlier this week, Morse and her fellow residents of tiny Rio Del Mar were ordered to evacuate as hillsides collapsed and massive logs and stumps tumbled down the bloated Aptos Creek from the Santa Cruz mountains into Monterey Bay.

Now they were scrambling to clean up while simultaneously stacking sandbags and hoping for the best as the rain got heavier.

“It’s one step forward and two steps back right now,” said Morse, 59, a disabled Army veteran. “There’s so much damage already.”

AP

[12 January 2023 15:50 · Oliver O'Connell]

Storms eight and nine on the way

The plume of moisture lurking off the northern coast of California stretched all the way over the Pacific to Hawaii, making the atmospheric river “a true Pineapple Express,” the National Weather Service said.

Michael Anderson, climatologist with the Department of Water Resources, said California has been hit by seven storms since the end of December and two more slightly weaker ones were expected before the state gets a reprieve by the end of next week.

“The challenge is they’re storms eight and nine in the sequence and the cumulative effect is likely to cause impacts larger than the storms themselves might cause,” Anderson said.

AP

[12 January 2023 16:20 · Oliver O'Connell]

Death toll still likely to rise

At least 18 people have died in the storms battering the state. The figure is likely to rise, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday during a visit to the scenic town of Capitola, just up the Santa Cruz coast from Rio Del Mar, which was hard hit by flooding creek waters. Raging surf destroyed an iconic pier.

A 43-year-old woman was found dead on Wednesday in her submerged car a day after calling 911 to say the vehicle was stuck in floodwaters north of San Francisco, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. When the search resumed at sunrise, divers discovered the car under about 10 feet (3 meters) of water off a rural road near Forestville, the department said.

AP

[12 January 2023 16:50 · Oliver O'Connell]

Cost of damage likely to exceed $1bn

More than half of California’s 58 counties were declared disaster areas and repairing the damage may cost more than $1bn, Brian Ferguson, spokesperson for the state Office of Emergency Services told the Associated Press.

His estimate was mirrored by that of a climate expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The total is a reflection of “physical damage to homes, businesses, and municipal properties,” said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist and disaster expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Smith is the lead researcher for NOAA’s “US Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters” report, which catalogs 18 such disasters from 2022. He has reason to believe that the atmospheric river-producing storms in California may join this year’s list.

“Clearly, when everything is said and done after weeks of atmospheric rivers,” Smith said, he “would not be surprised if this was the first billion-dollar event of 2023.”

Other major costs could include lost productivity for individuals and businesses due to evacuation, agricultural damage from flooding and damage to boats and piers along the coast, Smith said.

An often-overlooked cost associated with disasters is damage to public infrastructure, he noted. Damage to roads, bridges, levees and electrical systems would be totted up by NOAA but disregarded by the public as they assess their personal losses, he said.