Northern California Pounded By Rainstorms For Second Day Floods, Mudslides, Avalanches Pester Weather-Weary Residents

Gale-force winds and torrents of rain pounded Northern California for a second day Friday, swelling rivers, closing major highways and leaving thousands of residents homeless.

Flash flood and mudslide warnings were issued for much of a 200-mile stretch from Sonoma to Monterey.

National Guard helicopters that were to evacuate residents along the Napa and Russian rivers were grounded in Sacramento due to high wind.

An avalanche shut a highway in the Sierra Nevada, where winds of 80 miles per hour whipped through mountain passes. Mudslides closed Highway 17, the main route through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

River Street, which runs along the Guadalupe River in San Jose, turned into a real river as water spilled over the banks, forcing some residents from their homes.

And after several days of anxious waiting, drenching rains finally moved into Southern California. Up to 4 inches of rain were expected in most areas of the south before the storm, originally forecast to arrive late Wednesday, begins to clear out.

So far the damage is much less than in January, when two weeks of Pacific storms caused more than $300 million in damage statewide and 11 deaths.

In Northern California, Kaiser Elementary School, which sits below hillsides still scarred from the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, was evacuated Friday morning when the dirt above began moving.

The California Highway Patrol reported 400 accidents in the San Francisco Bay area at one point, and power remained out to about 100,000 homes and businesses.

Exasperated residents in the Russian River area, which endured disastrous flooding only two months ago, said they can’t take any more.

St. Helena, a picturesque wine country town on the Napa River, remained one of the worst hit, said police spokesman Kerry Porterfield. Four hundred people were evacuated Thursday from low-lying mobile home parks and two apartment buildings.

“They said get out so we left. All we got were our clothes, and we got our cars, too,” said trailer park resident Don King, who took shelter at a high school.

Santa Cruz County officials reported the San Lorenzo River was at its highest levels since a series of destructive floods in the early 1980s, and the Salinas River overflowed Friday, cutting several highways in Monterey County.

In Southern California, sandbags were piled waist-high in La Conchita and other flood-prone coastal areas.