California’s Struggle with the Recent Extreme Storms

California has been hit with back-to-back storms due to atmospheric rivers. Credit: Suparerg Suksai on Pexels

Since the end of December, a number of storms fueled by atmospheric rivers have made their way through California, leaving a death toll of 22 and millions of dollars in damages. 

Right after Christmas Day, a string of storms hit areas like the Bay Area and Fresno into the month of January. The state ordered evacuations for all the affected areas with thousands of citizens scrambled on fleeing the storms. 

According to NPR, Merced County alone had 5,000 people under evacuation orders and record flooding. As one of the worst hit counties from the storms, Governor Gavin Newsom paid a visit to the storm-damaged area’s evacuation center on January 14.

As for the damage, Mark Pestella, director of the county Department of Public Works, said in his interview with the LA Times, “the price tag for removing an estimated 15 million cubic yards of debris and mud from all five reservoirs and hauling it to sediment placement sites across the foothills is about $550 million.” All five reservoirs are filled with soupy mud and much debris. 

One of Marist’s students had to endure the wrath of these storms while home on her winter break. Annika Geissberger ‘24 was home in the Bay Area of San Francisco when the storms touched down in the state. Thunder and lightning was constant throughout some nights and calming down her dogs became a hassle. 

Not only did Geissberger’s family have to worry about their home in San Francisco, the stress was also about their second home in Sonoma, a town 35 minutes away from her hometown.  

“I saw a lot of my neighbors putting sandbags and stuff. We have a creek right next to our house … we did have a lot of flooding in our garden and bocce ball court,” she said. 

The silver lining to come out of these storms is how this recent rain and snowfall will help the state’s water supply and bring balance during the drier months that are ahead. NPR  reported that in the first three weeks of January nine atmospheric storms swept through, dumping an estimated amount of 32 trillion gallons of snow and rain. This is enough water to increase the storage in California’s two largest reservoirs at a combined 66%. Places like Sierra Nevada will play a big role this spring for the water supply and it’s already on track to out-do previous years for the amount of rain and snow accumulated. 

With all this on the table for California, state officials are “cautiously optimistic,” about what's to come this year with the water management of the streams and rivers.

“We're not out of drought in California, but this certainly makes a significant dent,” said Karla Nemeth, the director of the California Department of Water Resources.