Posted on 01/01/2006 5:29:39 PM PST by blam
California vineyards flooded as torrential rain causes chaos
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
(Filed: 02/01/2006)
Northern California's famous wine country suffered widespread flooding yesterday after powerful storms pummelled the region.
Rivers overflowed their banks, engulfing homes and triggering mudslides that blocked roads across the area.
At least a dozen people were rescued from the rushing waters and, with more rain forecast, emergency officials urged residents in low-lying areas close to rivers to evacuate.
The heaviest rain hit the Napa Valley area, just north of San Francisco and home to more than 200 vineyards, including the Robert Mondavi Winery, Francis Ford Coppola's Niebaum-Coppola estate, Domaine Chandon and Beringer. More than nine inches fell.
In St Helena, the heart of the Napa Valley, the Napa River rose to record heights, peaking at nearly eight feet above its flood level.
The nearby Russian River was more than 10 feet higher than normal and predicted to rise to 13 feet, threatening the town of Guerneville, in Sonoma County.
In Napa, the swollen river sent water surging into the town centre, flooding an estimated 1,000 homes.
"We had so much water in such a short amount of time that manhole covers were popping all over the city," said James Krider, a city councillor.
Many vineyards along the river were affected but officials did not predict widespread losses as most growers had already harvested their grapes.
The flooding exceeded the previous recent major deluge in 1997 but not the devastating storm of 1986 that caused £60 million worth of damage and took three lives.
Across the north of the state, an average of five inches of rain fell. More was forecast yesterday, with the storms lasting until tomorrow.
In Sonoma County, helicopters plucked people from flooded areas to safety. Others were rescued by boat.
One man died on Saturday when he was crushed by a storm-battered eucalyptus tree. A woman in Santa Rosa suffered a broken leg when a mudslide destroyed her home.
Flooding and mudslides closed several major roads, including the famous Pacific Coast Highway, California's Route 1.
In Pasadena, west of Los Angeles, rains threatened today's New Year Rose Parade for the first time since 1955. The 116-year-old event features elaborate floats and draws thousands of spectators.
Along the coast, the storm churned up the sea, creating waves of up to 18ft waves and triggering a high surf warning.
Storm warnings were also issued in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where heavy snow was expected to cover mountain passes.
The weather caused mudslides that closed major interstate routes and left more than 600,000 homes along America's western coast without gas or electricity.
As of early on Sunday morning, more than 110,000 households remained without power.
In Nevada, Reno experienced its worst flooding since New Year's Day 1997.
Sunday's storm was expected to drop another 2in in northern California, up to 4in in southern California's coastal valley and 8in in the mountains, forecasters said.
"It's looking pretty powerful," said Bonnie Bartling, a regional weather specialist.
BTW in Rancho, if you like seafood try Rudy's Hideaway...nice place great food!
And if you like Japanese food, try Samurai Sushi just a hop from Rudy's.
We're in Santa Rosa, fairly close to Napa and Guerneville, and it was just astounding how much water came down here all through the week but especially on Friday. On Friday night, the sump pump in our crawl space, which spews out about three gallons at a time, ran *continuously* from about three in the morning till 8 am. We got out a flashlight and took a look at what was happening with the pump, and it was frightening -- water just gushing in around the foundation. Thank goodness for sump pumps!
NOW that's what I'm talkin about
The glut is huge. A couple of years ago (3-5), the Lodi area removed over 50,000 acreas from production (because of prices, they get a lot less per ton there). That is more acreage than Sonoma County had in production at that time. It had little effect on the supply. This storm won't hurt much, unless a major production facility or 10 is destroyed.
We have been getting rain all morning, and it is coming down rather hard at this time.
Hopefully the people who have been cleaning up their apts, homes and businesses won't have to repeat the process.
I used to go abalone diving a little north of you back in the mid-60's.
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