January 7 was the day I posted a diary about the storms hitting the West Coast. Today January 12 things are not better. Atmospheric rivers have been bringing inches of rain to the state and and snow by the foot to the Sierra Nevadas. While this is refilling reservoirs drained by the drought of the past few years and bringing snowpack up to and over average levels of the past, it comes with a price.
From NBC News:
FORT BRAGG, Calif. — Several communities near California's Monterey Peninsula were told to flee their homes Wednesday after authorities warned that a river swollen by a series of drenching storms is expected to overflow its banks and possibly turn the area into an island.
Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto compared the expected flooding of the Salinas River to flooding in 1995, when heavy rains devastated the area and stranded people on either side of the flooded waterway...
…Tens of thousands more people were under evacuation warnings on the Salinas River, which state authorities warned was one of five waterways around California expected to exceed flood stage in the coming days.tu
The orders and warnings came as forecasters warned more torrential rain was on tap for Friday and the state’s death toll from an onslaught of atmospheric rivers rose to 18, a spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said.
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This video from CBS Sacramento from the last few hours ago gives an idea of just how serious the situation is getting.
CBS 8 from San Diego shows what’s going on in the mountains as of yesterday.
The storms aren’t just bringing rain and snow; they are also bringing hurricane force wind gusts at times that have been bringing down trees and causing power failures. According to a source in the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, which has been flying missions over the Pacific to get data on the incoming storms, they had to scrub a flight one day because it would not have been safe to take off with the high crosswinds at the airport they’ve been flying from.
This week-old video from WION shows some of the damage from the high winds.
How wet is it? More from NBC:
The incoming storms show few signs of letting up. The heaviest rain Wednesday — the seventh of nine atmospheric rivers forecast to hit the state through Jan. 18 — was expected to fall on northern and coastal regions of the state.
As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, more than 2 inches had fallen on the Sonoma County community of Venado over 24 hours, according to the California Nevada River Forecast Center. San Francisco recorded nearly 1 inch.
More than 4 million people were under flood watches, and 400,000 more were under flood warnings Wednesday night, mostly in Northern California, according to the National Weather Service.
Rain totals for the last week were 1 to 15 inches across the state, although some communities got significantly more, State Climatologist Michael Anderson told reporters Wednesday.
"In Santa Barbara in one day they had 15 inches," he said.
In Santa Cruz County, storms dumped 23 inches of rain over the past 10 days, damaging 130 homes and destroying eight, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said.
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The ground is saturated in many places. The risk of mudslides has forced residents to evacuate threatened areas.
Across the state, there have been 955 reports of flash floods, floods and landslides since the storms began arriving late last month, according to the National Weather Service.
Turn Around — Don’t Drown
Several fatalities have resulted from people trying to drive through flooding, including a 5 year old boy who was swept from his mother’s arms as she tried to get out of a car caught up by the water. It’s a deadly hazard.
Each year, more deaths occur due to flooding than from any other thunderstorm related hazard. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that over half of all flood-related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood water. The next highest percentage of flood-related deaths is due to walking into or near flood waters. People underestimate the force and power of water. Many of the deaths occur in cars swept downstream. Many of these drownings are preventable. Never drive around the barriers blocking a flooded road. The road may have collapsed under that water. A mere 6 inches of fast-moving flood water can knock over an adult. It takes just 12 inches of rushing water to carry away most cars and just 2 feet of rushing water can carry away SUVs and trucks. It is NEVER safe to drive or walk into flood waters.
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How bad could it get?
Historically every 100-200 years or so the rains continue for weeks and the result is a mega flood. Damages from that might hit a trillion dollars along with mass casualties. We aren’t there yet, but if the atmospheric rivers keep running past the next two storms in the forecast, we’ll see. It’s estimated the damage toll from the storms is already up to $30+ billion.
The losses are more than triple those from December blizzards in Buffalo, New York, though less than the $180 billion to $210 billion caused by Hurricane Ian when it struck Florida last year.
This is what climate change looks like. Anyone who tells you that taking action to deal with climate change would cripple the economy isn’t paying attention to the bill we’re already running up. Recovery efforts should be focused on long-term adaptation because things are going to get worse before they get better.
And don’t forget. In a few months we’re likely going to start seeing stories about fire season on the West Coast again.