A powerful storm battered Northern California with torrential rains and widespread flooding Saturday, and a second strong front was in line to push through the state and soak its southern regions today.
The latest storm was expected to linger through Tuesday, with the heaviest rains tonight and into Monday morning, virtually assuring the first wet Rose Parade in 51 years. Skies are expected to clear in time for Wednesday's Rose Bowl game.
On Saturday, emergency crews waded through waist-deep water and dropped into flooded areas from helicopters to rescue several stranded residents in submerged vehicles and homes in Northern California. Few injuries and no deaths were reported, but some residents in hard-hit areas said they experienced extensive property damage.
Widespread flooding stretched as far east as Reno but was most serious along Northern California's Russian and Napa rivers. There, rising waters flooded homes and businesses and triggered evacuation of hundreds of residents.
In Napa, furniture store owner Pieter Kloos said he lost much of his inventory of fabric, futons, tables and chairs from two warehouses after water rose 5 to 6 feet in the area.
"Downtown is like a war zone," Kloos said. "It's a big blow -- one of the most stressful things a person can experience."
In Sonoma County, a Sheriff's Department helicopter rescue team lifted six people to safety in a harrowing 90-minute stretch Saturday morning. Among those rescued was a man with hypothermia stranded on a bridge in Geyserville and three elderly people who were plucked from flooded homes in Schellville and airlifted to safety.
Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. Roger Rude, who supervises the helicopter rescue unit, said the storm "just hosed us." His team rushed to lift people to safety, "doing [pickups] and then reconfiguring for the next one. It was one, to the other, to the other."
The National Weather Service said today's storm could cause "significant and widespread" flash flooding tonight in areas burned last year by wildfires in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
"We had the fires two years ago in the Lake Arrowhead and Ventura County areas, and those are the places we are really going to keep an eye on as this heavy moisture moves in," said National Weather Service meteorologist Kathy Hoxsie. "Even Burbank, which had mudslides earlier this year, is going to be an area of concern."
