Bay Area storm: Floods strike Saturday, triggering more evacuations

Joany Morgan looked at her home in despair, the blue-hued house sitting in a foot of muddy water just across from the historic Felton Covered Bridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Yet again, the San Lorenzo River had crested its banks, triggering a fresh round of evacuations Saturday as another winter storm battered Santa Cruz County.

“It looks awful,” Morgan said. “There’s so much stuff — our garbage cans keep coming and going, we’ve got so much debris and mud.”

Morgan and her family were already staying at a hotel, when the latest evacuation order came down but were hoping authorities would allow them back in their home on Saturday. She remembered nervously monitoring river level gauges online last week, watching as they showed the water level steadily rise.

“I must have fallen asleep,” Morgan said. “At 5 o’clock I heard the bullhorn — GET OUT! We took the truck and got out.”

Joany Morgan’s home sits in several inches of brown, muddy floodwater Sat. Jan. 14, 2023 after heavy rains from a series of atmospheric river storms swelled the nearby San Lorenzo River above flood stage for the second time in less than a week. (John Woolfolk/Bay Area News Group) 

This weekend’s storm — the latest in a series of at least seven punishing atmospheric rivers that have slammed the greater Bay Area since late December — ushered in another spate of dangerous winds, mudslides and flooding across the rain-weary region.

But relief could be in sight, as the relentless three-week deluge that’s caused an estimated $1 billion in damage and left at least 19 dead statewide was expected to clear for good by Monday afternoon. Drier weather is set to return for most of the rest of the week ahead.

“That should probably be that last batch of heavier rain,” said Chris Outler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “The brunt of the storm should wrap up after Monday morning.”

Floodwaters filled a Felton neighborhood in Santa Cruz County for a second time in less than a week after heavy rains from a series of atmospheric river storms swelled the San Lorenzo River above flood stage Sat. Jan. 14, 2023. (John Woolfolk/Bay Area News Group) 

On Saturday, nearly 30,000 people across the state were under evacuation orders and warnings. South of San Jose, flooding and mudflows threatened to cut off access to Monterey Peninsula, where officials ordered evacuations near the Carmel River.

In Santa Cruz County, the swelling San Lorenzo River and Soquel Creek forced evacuations in Rio Del Mar, Soquel Village, Felton Grove and Paradise Park. Officials also urged residents in parts of Watsonville and Aptos to leave immediately.

But not everyone heeded those calls. San Jose firefighter recruit Roman Bodnarchuk, who has evacuated his second-story apartment next to Soquel Creek twice in the last two weeks, said he didn’t plan to pack his parents into his car and drive to a nearby hotel this time around — even as more than a foot of water flowed into his backyard Saturday morning.

“It’s just expensive for the family of four, and we also have two dogs, just to be evacuated for a few hours,” Bodnarchuk said.

Bodnarchuk’s parents are Ukrainian refugees who moved into his apartment just four days before the first evacuations in his neighborhood on New Year’s Eve. Since then, Bodnarchuk’s mother has been in and out of the hospital battling a serious bacterial pneumonia infection and the flu.

“I’m not processing this whole thing, because I’m more in survival mode,” Bodnarchuk said. “I’ll probably start thinking about this when we have some sunny weather … because it’s just too much. It’s very overwhelming.”

The Soquel Creek surges causing more than a foot of water to flow into Roman Bodnarchuk and wife Adriana Munoz’s backyard at their second-story apartment of along Soquel Wharf Road in Soquel, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. Bodnarchuk and other nearby homes have received a third round of evacuation orders. (Courtesy of Adriana Munoz) 

Powerful wind gusts topping 45 mph also tore across the region, knocking out power to some 16,000 households Saturday morning, with more than 1,300 customers affected in Santa Clara County and 2,600 in Marin County. It was an improvement, though, over the more than 100,000 households that were without electricity at one point last week.

“Even some gusts of 30 to 40 miles per hour have got the potential to cause trees to come down and some power issues,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Colby Goatley. “Roots can’t hold the tree up when everything around them is muddy.”

On Saturday, about an inch of rain was expected to fall across most of the Bay Area by day’s end. That’s in addition to the 8 to 10 inches of precipitation that has already accumulated across the region over the last 19 days.

During a visit to Merced Saturday afternoon, Gov. Gavin Newsom reflected on the 19 people who have died in the storms in recent weeks. “For all the focus that is wildfires in the state of California — just consider the last two years — we never had anything like that in terms of civilian deaths,” he said. “These weather events have taken more lives in the last two years than wildfires. That’s how deadly they are.”

Niles Canyon Road is closed at Old Canyon Road from flooding along the Alameda Creek Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023, in Fremont, Calif. (Photo by Jim Gensheimer) 

A few miles north of Fremont, Saturday’s rain caused a mudslide that closed State Route 84 again in both directions. The road had just reopened Thursday, after road crews removed debris the previous storm pushed onto the roadway.

Parts of Highway 9 near Ben Lomond and Highway 156 near Hollister also closed Saturday. And both lanes of Highway 1 near Big Sur remained shut down with no timeline for reopening.

On Sunday, rain was forecast to continue on and off through most of Monday with drier weather to follow. There is a possibility of light rain Wednesday, but the Bay Area should be turning a sunnier corner.

“That should be the start of a drier trend,” Outler said.

CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the photos on a mobile device

  • A PG&E crew surveys downed power lines caused by a fallen tree on Claremont Avenue in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

  • A fallen tree knocked down powerlines along Claremont Avenue in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

  • A fallen tree knocked down power lines along Claremont Avenue in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

  • Flood waters block Niles Canyon Road at the railroad bridge the Alameda Creek Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023, near Fremont, Calif. (Photo by Jim Gensheimer)

  • Foothill Road is open to local traffic only as slide areas abound Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023, in Sunol, Calif. (Photo by Jim Gensheimer)

  • Residents observe Alameda Creek as it flows near a bridge on Old Canyon Road near Niles Canyon Road Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023, in Fremont, Calif. (Photo by Jim Gensheimer)

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