California was bracing for another round of rain beginning Monday as officials tried to assess the damage from severe flooding along the Central Coast and Central Valley, which left scores stranded and left whole blocks under water.
A levee failure on the Pajaro River in Monterey County — three miles upstream from the town of Pajaro — triggered massive flooding in and around the farming town and prompted hundreds of evacuations.
More than 3,400 people in Monterey County remained under an evacuation order or warning as of late Saturday night, with more than 200 people sheltering at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds and a Salinas church.
Flooding or mudslides had shut down several stretches of the highways Sunday morning around Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, including Highway 1 and both eastbound and westbound State Route 152. Monterey County remained littered with road closures from flooding, downed trees or power lines, and storm damage and debris. And flooding also led to the closure Sunday morning of another major artery in the Bay Area — Interstate 880 in Fremont.
Yet another atmospheric river will bring new flood concerns to Northern California beginning Monday and continuing through Tuesday night. California emergency officials said Sunday that they were already coordinating plans to position flood fighting personnel, including swift water rescue teams.
The Bay Area is now seeing bands of rain showers and thunderstorms, but “the focus is going to be on the next atmospheric river that arrives Monday evening,” said Patrick Ayd, a meterologist with the National Weather Service. Flood and high wind watches are going into effect for the Bay Area and Central Coast starting Monday evening, he said.
The upcoming storms are expected to hit the same areas as the last round, Ayd said, with the worst impact at higher elevations.
In the aftermath of the recent storms, “we have very saturated soils, which will make us even more prone to…