Hundreds in San Jose rescued from floodwaters
worse and worse,” said Alex Hilario, who walked in knee-high water to get to his car and leave the area.
“We didn’t get a chance to get anything out,” Hilario added.
Bobby Lee, 15, said he was rescued with his brother and parents, who took clothes, electronics and some photos from their home in a neighborhood that ended up littered with submerged cars.
“This is like once-in-a-lifetime,” Lee said.
Earlier Tuesday, firefighters rescued five people stranded by flooding at a homeless camp along the same creek in San Jose.
Firefighters knocked on doors to tell residents to get out of their homes because the city does not
OROVILLE, Calif. — The water level behind the troubled dam at Lake Oroville is rising for the first time since authorities ordered an emergency evacuation more than a week ago.
But officials said Tuesday that the lake still has plenty of room to take in heavy recent rainfall.
Department of Water Resources Director Bill Croyle said the water level at Lake Oroville is expected to peak 45 feet below capacity by early Wednesday before the level begins dropping once again.
Croyle said he expects crews to be done fixing the eroded emergency spillway around March 1, making the structure safer if the lake overflows as it did Feb. 11.
He said officials are considering all options for a long-term fix to the lake’s damaged main spillway, including repairing, replacing or moving it. have sirens or another emergency warning system, San Jose spokesman David Vossbrink said.
The rains were the latest produced by a series of storms generated by so-called atmospheric rivers that dump massive quantities of Pacific Ocean water on California after carrying it aloft from as far away as Hawaii.
The current storm system began to weaken Tuesday after dumping more than a half-inch of rain in the San Joaquin Valley, over an inch in San Francisco, and more than 5 inches in the mountains above Big Sur over the previous 24 hours, the National Weather Service reported.
Dry weather was expected to return to the region on Wednesday.