Hwy. 99 flooded over.
You're looking at the aftermath
of the New Year's Eve storm that
brought high winds and driving rain
and breached the levees last night.
A storm that we now know was deadly.
You see the abandoned flooded cars
on the roadway this morning a person
was found dead inside a car that
was completely submerged because
someones fire officials telling us
that the car was swept off Dillard Rd.
just east of Hwy. 99.
That major highway still closed right now.
And to make matters worse.
This this video shows us the extreme
conditions made it nearly impossible
for emergency services to respond.
Take a look at this ambulance
in the floodwater.
This was in a combo today on lower
Sacramento Rd. Just South of guilt.
And here's another look at Hwy. 99.
Right now it's closed from Grant Line Rd.
To Dillard Rd.
South of the city of Elk Grove,
and it will remain closed for
several more hours. Good evening.
I'm Luke Clary. Thank you for joining us.
And for over 24 hours,
we've been tracking the winter
storms in our area and the path of
destruction that this one left behind.
Officials confirming that there
were three levee breaches in
the Cosumnes River area causing
the flooding that you just saw.
Our team of reporters and meteorologists.
Covering this from all angles,
meteorologist Brendan Minchev
explains when we could see another
system of rain and snow.
Alicia Machado tracking evacuation
orders in Point Pleasant.
But first,
Brandon Rittiman starts us off
from Dillard Road or Brandon,
the storm conditions turned deadly.
Yeah, they did.
In this bad. As Dillard Rd.
looks behind me right now,
I need you to imagine that it
was quite a bit worse earlier
today when we first got here,
the water was all the way up to
the level at the top of that pickup
truck that you see in our shot.
So imagine those conditions
when rescuers set out in a boat
to get to that missing car,
and unfortunately inside
the driver's still there.
The individual was recovered from a vehicle
that was completely submerged in water.
Firefighters never want to lose anyone,
but one look at Hwy.
99 makes it clear many more people
could have died here today.
More than a dozen cars got caught in
water rushing across the highway.
We rescued dozens of people over the
last 24 hours from the rooftop of
their vehicle or from the bed of their
pickup truck when it became impossible
for them to rescue themselves.
Sacramento County confirms levees
near the Cosumnes River breached.
In three places, those levees likely
weakened by floating debris in similar
floods that happened here back in 2017.
It's my second time going through it,
so I'm fine with it. I'm, I mean,
if I have to sleep on the roof,
you sleep on the roof.
Dranoel Ferguson and his son Cameron
spent the morning trying to clear
the private road to their house
and a few of their neighbors.
Luckily, their homes are on
ground that's just high enough,
so I'm feeling blessed that
my house student gets soaked.
Plenty of neighbors around them
didn't have the same good fortune.
And all this water,
it's not done causing problems yet
fast moving water is still
moving through Sacramento County.
The the hazard is not gone.
In Point Pleasant, closer to I5,
the sandbag station had a lot of visitors.
I wasn't expecting this weather,
so I knew it was going to rain,
but I just. I forget. I forgot how
crazy it gets. So
Stephanie Lopez was expecting
to spend the holidays
shooting pool with her family.
Instead, she's helping sandbag
her grandparents garage.
Now you get to do this.
Not a bad way to spend my Sunday,
the New Year, New Year, right.
So it's a fun family activity.
Yeah, nice bonding.
With evacuations in place,
they plan on staying elsewhere tonight.
Rescuers would love it if more
people did the same, or at least
seek high ground when you're asked to do so.
And do not drive on flooded roadways.
Meantime, everyone wonders,
how many more days of this are
we in for? To kick off 2023?
I hear we supposed to have,
what, 15 more days of rain?
So with 15 more days of rain,
hopefully some of this goes away and.
Hopefully it's not as bad
as it was. Yesterday.
Now this car you can see got washed out
into the middle of a field right here,
sort of an impromptu lake
that is feeding into Hwy.
99 still running across the highway.
Caltrans saying that Hwy.
99 is expected to be closed
until at least tomorrow,
possibly late in the
day. All right, thank you Brandon.
Always surreal to see families
having to take boats in and
out of their neighborhoods.
Again, our Brandon Rittman reporting.
Now let's turn it over to
Alicia Machado, who is live.
In Point Pleasant with more on the
order and a closer look at the area.
Alicia, what are you seeing?
Yeah, well Luka, this is exactly why there
are evacuation orders in this area right now.
You can see water working its way through
streets out here in point pleasant,
the water getting pretty strong
as it flows onto the roadways.
Rd. closure sign, flooded Rd.
signs and even in the distance.
I want to show you over here there is a
car that is sitting in water right now.
We have seen several roads out here
that are flooded near Twin Cities.
The Franklin Rd.
is where we're at right now,
but several areas along Franklin Blvd.
are currently flooded.
Honestly,
as we were making our way over,
it seemed like we were more traveling
through a river and our car happened
to be the boat instead of making
our way over roadways as normal.
Now this evacuation order is very important
for people who live in this area,
our local county officials and
emergency officials asking
people to get out before sunset.
The sun is already setting.
At this time right now.
So I can't stress enough the importance
of getting out while you can,
we have heard that some families
have already left the area and gotten
out to be with family and friends
who are in safer higher ground.
But some residents I actually spoke
with tonight choosing to stay.
They say they feel OK being on a
little bit higher and raise ground
than what we're standing on right
here with this water pulling in.
Now,
our emergency officials say the
big concern is for water flowing
downhill and into this.
Area where there are some homes.
We have seen several fields out
in this area that are completely
submerged underneath water right now.
And you can see even as we go
over to the roadways,
again just water continuing to flow.
We will have much more on this
tonight at 6:00 o'clock PM,
so stay tuned for that here from
a local family deciding to stay
as well as a closer look at what
people are experiencing out here
with these flooded roads.
Luke,
all right. Channel reporting with
the water just still continuing to
flow behind you, I wanna get it over
to meteorologist Brendan Minchev.
You were here tracking this all last night.
And as you can clearly see, we are
still dealing with the aftermath. Yeah,
we're still dealing with this
aftermath right now. I want to show
you this map right here behind me.
Last night we talked a lot about the
Wilton area where there was concern
for the levees that did break, right.
So now all that water,
not only the the water from the levee break,
but the water still coming down from the
Sierra is working its way down from Wilton.
To the southwest right now,
so you can see the Cosumnes
River here and then 99,
we saw a lot of flooding over there,
as you saw from Brandon a few minutes ago.
And now we're into the point Point
Pleasant area where that evacuation
order is in effect now because they're
concerned for this water that is making
its way to the point pleasant area.
Tonight at least Machado was right here,
Franklin Blvd.
Twin Cities Road,
and that was just some of the water.
More water is anticipated.
Good news is it's not a levy
concern this time.
It's just the fact that more
water is moving on to the area.
So a flood warning right
now for the Thornton area.
Walnut Grove has that Water Works its way in.
Still have that flash flood
warning through tonight for the
Wilton area across 99 as well.
Is going to take some time
for that water to clear.
As we look at the Mcelhinney River at I5
you can see still has not crested yet.
Expected to Crest at about 21.2 feet.
Very close to the record right now.
Thankfully no rain out there but
some more rain is on the way.
Not gonna see it quite this evening,
but we will tomorrow.
Temperatures only in the 40s.
Tomorrow with more rain on the way, Luke.
Alright, thanks, Brendan.
We'll check back in with you in a moment.
Zach, Metro firefighters have been rescuing
stranded people from the floodwaters.
That's the fire district copter,
one that you're looking at right now,
which was utilized to make multiple rescues.
Last night, one person found themselves
trapped in cold water after their car was
washed off of the road and 1st responders
hoisted that victim out of the water.
The victim then transported to the
hospital in critical condition.
And again, just a few hours ago,
crews found another person who is in the
water pressed up against some trees.
Another hoist rescue this video showing
the crew returning with the victim
to be transported to the hospital.
The high winds causing several
downed trees and power lines.
10s of thousands of smud customers
still in the dark tonight after the
storm knocked down branches and in some
cases entire trees snapping power lines.
Smud says that the power should be.
Restore it at some point.
We're working on getting an
exact timeline for you.
Meanwhile,
thousands still without power across Northern
California with over 3200 PG&E customers
in West Sacramento and Galt and Stockton.
Residents also struggling with
a large number of outages.
According to PG&E,
there is no estimated time that
the power will be restored.
And take a look at this.
Neighbors helping neighbors,
several folks coming together to
clean up a downed tree and broken
branches littering the road.
Some neighbors.
Bringing out chainsaws and wheelbarrows as
well as Rakes and brooms to clear the street.
And here are a few more scenes
of the damage that the storm left
behind in Midtown Sacramento.
There are some really big trees down like
that one smashing cars and causing Rd.
closures going into a second
evening in a row.
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