Hundreds rescued from flooding

Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Rescuers steered boats full of people, some with babies and pets, from a San Jose neighborhood inundated Tuesday by water from an overflowing creek.

Further north, farmers used tractors to shore up an endangered levee in California’s agricultural heartland, officials opened a spillway at the Don Pedro reservoir for the first time in 20 years, and a Sierra Nevada highway threatened to collapse after the latest downpours swelled waterways, leaving nearly half of the state under flood advisories.

In San Jose, at least 225 residents were taken to dry land and rinsed with soap and water to prevent them from being sickened by floodwaters from the Coyote Creek that had traveled through engine fuel, garbage, debris and over sewer lines, said Mitch Matlow, a San Jose fire captain.

Rescuers went door-todoor searching for people who needed to leave the neighborhood because the city does not have sirens or another warning system.

“The water started to seep in the driveway, and then it started to creep up into the front door. It kept getting worse and worse,” said Alex Hilario, who walked in water to get to his car. “We didn’t get a chance to get anything out,” he said.

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,” Bobby Lee said.

Earlier Tuesday, firefighters rescued five people stranded by flooding at a homeless camp along the same creek in San Jose.

The rains were the latest produced by a series of storms generated by socalled atmospheric rivers that dump massive quantities of Pacific Ocean water on California after carrying it aloft from as far away as Hawaii. At the same time, dramatic gusts were recorded high in the Sierra Nevada, where Alpine Meadows had a 199-mph gust, according to the National Weather Service. Biggs recorded 184 mph.

Monday was expected to be the strongest part of the storm. It produced some flooding — but so far not the mass damage some had feared. The rains have saturated the once-drought stricken region and wreaked havoc for residents hit hard by the heavy rain. At least four people have died in the storms throughout the state in the last week.

A motorist in Northern California was swept into a creek Saturday during another in the series of storms and drowned inside her car, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Dry weather was expected to return to the region today.