Another powerful storm hit California between Friday night and early Saturday, forcing thousands to evacuate and killing two, while causing a levee to breach off the Monterey County coast.
“We hoped to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst scenario came when the Pájaro River overflowed its banks and broke the levee around midnight,” Luis Alejo, Monterey County Supervisor, reported on his Twitter account on Saturday.
On Friday, state emergency director Nancy Ward announced that the storm had already claimed at least two lives.
Images posted on the state National Guard’s Twitter account showed guards rescuing residents trapped in their cars by high water levels.
At least one highway was washed out in Santa Cruz County, north of Monterey.
Residents of various cities, mostly in the north, were ordered to evacuate.
A seemingly endless series of unusually intense storms has battered the state of California for weeks.
Part of a powerful atmospheric river known as the Pinapple Express, the latest storm was expected to dump up to 9 inches of rain on already saturated ground.
The precipitation will hasten the melting of a huge layer of snow in high places and threatens to exacerbate already critical flooding.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, approved on Friday the emergency declaration that clears the way to disburse federal aid to the state.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state was “deploying every tool” at its disposal “to protect communities from the relentless and deadly series of storms.”
In January storms in California left 20 dead.