A Northern California agricultural community famous for its strawberry crop has been forced to evacuate after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river that pummeled the state.
A man walks his bicycle through floodwaters in Watsonville, Calif., Saturday, March 11, 2023. Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared emergencies in 34 counties in recent weeks, and the Biden administration approved a presidential disaster declaration for some on Friday morning, a move that will bring more federal assistance.
The Pajaro River separates the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey in the area that flooded Saturday. State Sen. John Laird, who spearheaded the law and represents the area, said the project is fully funded now but it just came down to bad timing with this year's rains.This week's storm marked the state’s 10th atmospheric river of the winter, storms that have brought enormous amounts of rain and snow to the state and helped lessen the drought conditions that had dragged on for three years.
The atmospheric river, known as a “Pineapple Express” because it brought warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific from near Hawaii, was melting lower parts of the huge snowpack built in California’s mountains. The National Weather Service on Saturday forecasted an intensified bout of rain and snow Monday through Wednesday, with considerable flooding possible along the state's central coast, San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys and the southern Sierra Nevada foothills into midweek.
The snowpack at high elevations is so massive it was expected to be able to absorb the rain, but snow below 4,000 feet could start to melt, potentially contributing to flooding, forecasters said.
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