N. California Gets a Break From Rain

SACRAMENTO — Northern California began to dry out Sunday after being drenched by another fast-moving storm that triggered new flooding, from the capital city’s soggy suburbs to San Jose.

With as much as seven inches of rain dousing the Sacramento area in the last week, the sun began to shine on Super Bowl Sunday, and storm-weary residents were generally taking the latest flooding in stride and with good humor.

A sign at the state flood center announced: “We R the Super Bowl! Great Central Valley,” prompting one official to joke that the valley’s flood plain is one big sink for storm waters rushing out of the Sierra Nevada.

For now, that river plumbing system remains in good shape. Authorities were encouraged that major rivers and reservoirs could handle the latest surge of storm water from predawn bursts Sunday.

“Considering what we were expecting, we dodged a cannonball because Thursday and Friday . . . we thought all hell was going to break loose,” said Jeff Cohen, a spokesman at the state flood control center.

New Year’s flooding caused $1.6 billion worth of damage in Northern California and forced thousands to be evacuated. The Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday that it has spent nearly $58 million on levee repairs, mostly in the Central Valley.

One of the worst hit areas was in Olivehurst, south of Marysville.

On Sunday, Yuba County officials said two breaks in levees along the Bear River triggered renewed flooding and voluntary evacuations around Olivehurst.

“People are worried. They are already shaken up,” said one local official.

But most of the flooding was caused by creeks and streams filled with rainwater.

In Rio Linda, a north Sacramento suburb that is often inundated, Dry Creek rose, flooding some homes and streets.

In the communities of Roseville and Granite Bay to the northeast, heavy rain overnight caused streams to rise suddenly and triggered some flooding of homes, authorities said. By late afternoon Sunday, the water was receding.

At Roseville Hardware, the manager said he sold a few sump pumps and shovels, but business in flood gear was not especially brisk.

“I think people are pretty well prepared already. It [flooding] happened in 1995 and in 1986, so I guess people are pretty well used to it,” he said.

Along California 50, which links the resorts of South Lake Tahoe to Northern California, crews from the California Department of Transportation were assessing a massive mudslide that shut down the roadway near Kyburz, about 50 miles east of the Capitol.

Caltrans was determining whether to clear the debris or build a new roadbed on top of the slide, which may block the road for weeks. The Friday night slide destroyed three homes.

“The hillside is very unstable . . . we don’t want to trigger additional slides,” said Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago.

On Sunday night, highway officials were bracing for major traffic congestion after the Super Bowl on Interstate 80, the remaining open artery linking Tahoe ski and gambling resorts to Sacramento.

Even though skies were clearing and the latest storm slackening, state officials said that any further significant rain could pose a threat because of “super-saturated soil.”

“The earth is like a sponge when it fills and then repels everything,” said Jim Bailey, a flood operations spokesman.

A month of downpours in Malibu sent mud sliding across all four lanes of Pacific Coast Highway, shutting down the road from Big Rock Drive to Las Flores Canyon. By early Sunday evening, Caltrans workers had reopened one lane in each direction, but one northbound lane was expected to remain closed until at least this morning.

The weekend storms caused havoc in the San Francisco Bay Area too.

U.S. 101, a busy north-south route, was closed in San Jose after an overflowing creek left parts of the road under two feet of water. Emergency workers used pumps to clear the water, although officials said the highway probably would remain closed through this morning’s commute.

Local forecasts called for partly cloudy skies, with the possibility of another storm tonight or Tuesday.