Heavy Winter Storms Lead to Flood Warnings

SACRAMENTO — The first in what is expected to be a series of drenching winter storms has prompted flood warnings and swelled Northern California rivers to their highest levels in seven years.

Warnings went into effect across the northern half of the state after the first storm swept through Tuesday and Wednesday. Steady downpours and rising rivers led to an evacuation, scattered power outages and flooded roads and parks. Water district officials in Sacramento closed a flood gate on the American River as a precaution.

“It’s been several years since we’ve had this widespread of flooding, and we’re not done,” said Rob Hartman of the National Weather Service’s California-Nevada River Forecast Center in Sacramento.

The last significant flooding in Northern California was during the El Nino year of 1998 and a year earlier, when three people died after levees collapsed north of Sacramento. The danger is less this time because there is relatively little snow in the Sierra Nevada to be melted by the warm rains.

More storms are forecast to begin Friday and continue through the New Year’s weekend.

Hillsides already were giving way in some parts of Northern California as the steady rain soaked ground that was saturated.

Rivers were cresting from the Napa County wine country to the far northern coast, including the Russian, Navarro, Scott, Klamath and Eel rivers. They are expected to rise to flood stage periodically through the weekend without causing severe damage.

“We’re getting an early start on the rain and snow season, which is good as long as we don’t get flooding,” said Don Strickland, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources.

Federal and state water managers were releasing torrents of water at the Oroville and Folsom dams, but both reservoirs had plenty of capacity to handle additional runoff.

“We’re in good shape,” said Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. “The system’s working everywhere it should.”

The northern Sierra has had 226% of its normal precipitation for this time of year. Most has fallen as rain, although a weekend cold front is expected to bring snow.

The Sacramento River is expected to rise to 27 feet by the weekend, 4 feet below its flood level. That is still high enough to concern water managers, who plan to open a massive weir north of downtown and divert river water to a vast wetlands.