The Atmospheric river storms that battered California for weeks inflicted “extensive” damage in as many as 40 of the state’s 58 counties, and total repairs could reach $1 billion, according to authorities cited by the Los Angeles Times.
A pier in Santa Cruz broke in half. Extensive flooding in Villa Soquel, Capitola and Planada. Damaged or closed vital bridges. More than 500 reported mudslides in California in recent weeks, including some that damaged homes and cars in Los Angeles’ hillside communities.
The estimated cost is likely to rise as teams of local, state and federal officials begin damage assessment Saturday that is expected to continue for several weeks, according to Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
President Biden approved an expedited major disaster declaration on Saturday, directing that federal assistance be provided for recovery efforts in areas of California that were affected by the storms.
All 58 counties are eligible for hazard mitigation assistance, which means federal aid can be awarded to state and local governments and specific nonprofit organizations to reduce risk to life and property.
The Federal assistance will reimburse state and local governments for 75% of the cost of repairing infrastructure and other necessities.
It will also provide assistance for individual programs based on need and the amount of insurance residents have, according to Ferguson.
The local governments in the most damaged areas could pay as little as 8.5% of the cost.
In Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz counties, residents will have access to assistance to replace or repair damaged property and other services; nonprofit organizations in those counties will receive federal aid to perform emergency work and debris removal.
The storms, which began after Christmas and continued into this week, dumped rain across the state, killing at least 20 people, prompting evacuations and flooding rivers and highways.
The storms caused “significant” damage in Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz counties, as well as Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Benito along the Central Coast, Ferguson said, adding there will be “extensive” costs to 30 or 40 counties. .
As of Monday, the US Geological Survey had identified more than 500 landslides across the state since Dec. 30, piles of dirt and rocks blocking roads and power outages due to falling trees.
In Monterey County, the Gonzales River Bridge was weakened by flooding and too damaged to be used Tuesday, authorities said.
The bridge was blocked with concrete rails; it will take two to three weeks before the next steps for the repair can be determined. Also, over the weekend, a rockslide covered parts of Highway 1, which showed “significant instability” after the storms, according to Caltrans.
In Ventura County, piles of rocks and mud on roads reached as high as 40 feet, isolating residents and blocking travel, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Officials said it could take up to three weeks to clear a single-lane access road and up to six months to make repairs.
If more counties are found to have significant storm damage, they could be added to the disaster declaration, Ferguson said.
“There are thresholds that we need to meet with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be able to access that,” he added. “Our goal is to (maximize) the federal support that we can provide to communities.”
In Monterey County alone, a preliminary assessment of damage was $80 million, according to spokesman Nicholas Pasculli.
That cost would include debris removal, emergency protective measures and equipment, as well as repairs to utilities, roads, bridges, water control facilities, public buildings, and parks and recreational facilities.
Pasculli said he expects that number to rise to at least $100 million on Tuesday once the county receives the latest information.
Monterey County’s agricultural industry suffered losses of $40 million to $50 million, and 25,000 to 35,000 acres of farmland were “seriously affected” by the flooding, Pasculli said.
There were also losses in equipment, irrigation systems, well pumps and crops.
It is estimated that there was at least $30 million to $50 million in damage to infrastructure throughout the county, including roads, bridges, and other buildings.
In Sacramento County, repairs could cost more than $123.8 million, but that number is expected to “drop” after officials finish their inspections, according to spokeswoman Samantha Mott.
As of Tuesday, the storms had caused about $668,000 in damage to private property, including homes, businesses and outbuildings, Mott said.
In Santa Cruz County, the estimate as of Friday was $55 million, with spokesman Jason Hoppin calling it a “pretty dramatic underestimate.”
“That number is going to (increase) exponentially,” he said. “It’s a fraction of what the final number will be.”
Hoppin said the figure does not include private property, Caltrans infrastructure or state highways. Damage assessment, he said, is ongoing.
“When it rains every day, you can’t assess things,” Hoppin said, noting that Tuesday was the first sunny day in weeks. “We have roads that are still evolving in terms of degradation.”
In Ventura County, there was more than $30 million in damage to public property, according to Patrick Maynard, director of the Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services.
More than 80 private properties were affected, including two destroyed structures, he said, adding that Ventura should have an updated damage assessment later this week.
Mike North, a Merced County spokesman, did not have an estimate of the damage as the assessment is ongoing, but he said the agricultural sector was hardest hit financially.
“However, this has affected most sectors of our economy,” he added.
Another storm system is expected to roll from the Pacific Northwest into California this week, but it won’t bring significant rain, according to National Weather Service meteorologist David Sweet.
The Bay Area is forecast to receive up to a half inch of rain, mainly in parts of Sonoma and Napa counties, on Wednesday. The Los Angeles region could see drizzle or light rain early Thursday.
“The ground is saturated, so additional rains would lead to a very rapid response of the water running in the rivers, and there would be some hydrological problems, because now we are very close to saturation,” he added.
The Saturday’s storm set a record rainfall of 1.82 inches in downtown Los Angeles, surpassing the old record of 1.56, set in 1978Sweet said.
At the Long Beach airport, there were 1.72 inches, surpassing the 1978 record of 1.48. Records were also broken on Saturday in Camarillo and Paso Robles.
So far this hydrological year, which began on October 1, downtown Los Angeles has received 13.01 inches of rain. The typical figure for this point of the year is 5.67 inches.
“The storms we had in the last couple of weeks had an atmospheric river for each one, and those storms are the ones that tend to supply the West Coast (with) most of its rainfall during the winter season,” Sweet said. “It was a bit unusual to see so many atmospheric rivers lined up like this.”
He called the rainfall totals in Santa Barbara County especially impressive.
“On average, one would expect that kind of rain once every 100 years,” Sweet said. “That doesn’t mean it takes another 100 years for another storm to happen, but generally, with the average statistics for that area, you would only expect something like that to happen once every 100 years.”
The storms improved California’s drought conditions, eradicating the two most severe categories, “extreme” and “exceptional,” for most of the state, according to the US Drought Monitor.
On December 27, approximately 7.16% of California was considered to be in “exceptional” drought; as of January 10, none from the state was in that ranking.
Despite the deluge, Sweet said, if the state were dry for the remainder of the water year, as it was last year, vegetation on hillsides could dry out, leading to a potentially dangerous wildfire season this summer. “Usually if it doesn’t rain from January to March, we can have a busy fire season,” he noted. “By the time July and August roll around, things have dried up.”
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