At a briefing Saturday, California Governor Gavin Newsom estimated that 22 to 25 trillion gallons of water had fallen over the past 16 to 17 days due to an unprecedented “pile of these atmospheric rivers.”
Newsom urged residents to remain vigilant despite Sunday’s forecast for lower levels of rain, as even modest amounts of rain could cause flooding and mudslides as the ground becomes saturated. The NWS issued warnings for possible flooding for areas along the California coast from San Francisco to the southern tip of the state.
Large parts of central California have received more than half of their normal annual rainfall since the storm began last month, knocking out power to thousands of homes and forcing entire towns to be evacuated.
Jonathan Goodell, a spokesman for the state governor’s office of emergency services, said 14,411 people had been evacuated across the state as of Sunday morning.
One such evacuee was Steve Summey, a 70-year-old Vietnam War veteran, who evacuated his RV motorhome to higher ground in Guerneville, about 75 miles (120 km) north of San Francisco, because of concerns about the Russian River overflowing its banks. Had given. ,
“It rained so hard, my RV shorted out. We’re going through a lot of stress. The water came pretty close to our place,” Summi told Reuters on Sunday. “We’re hanging in there in the best possible way.”