Excerpt:
San Lorenzo River hits second-highest level in 85 years, as Bay Area is soaked with another storm
The fifth atmospheric river storm in 10 days, an onslaught of soaking weather that has drenched Northern California since New Year’s Eve, hit hard again Monday, causing major flooding near Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains, submerging Highway 101 near Gilroy and sending creeks and rivers to the tops of their banks.
The San Lorenzo River at Big Trees, near Henry Cowell State Park, rose to 24.51 feet by 7:30 a.m. — 8 feet over its flood stage and the second-highest level recorded since modern records began in 1937.
Only during legendary floods in January 1982, when the river hit 28.8 feet and 10 people were killed in a mudslide at Love Creek near Ben Lomond, has the river run higher. More rain was forecast Tuesday and this weekend.
“In this drought era, a lot of folks in California may have forgotten just how significant the storms can get at times — how much water can fall from the sky over a relatively short period of time,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA…
