Flooded Out San Jose Residents Now Deal With Mold Threat
First came the flood, and now many San Jose residents are facing a new threat: black, green and even blue mold.
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First came the flood, and now many San Jose residents are facing a new threat: black, green and even blue mold.
When the floodwaters rushed in last month in San Jose, a firefighter hauled Hien Nguyen to safety. Her two-bedroom apartment was devastated by the flood water and she wasn't alone.
San Jose's emergency warning system was so ineffectual that it virtually guaranteed people were not warned before the catastrophic floods.
California faces an estimated $50 billion price tag for roads, dams and other infrastructure threatened by floods such as the one that severely damaged Oroville Dam.
Emails sent before the storm that devastated parts of San Jose with flooding show city leaders knew it was going to be a disaster.
All along Hein Nguyen's Rock Springs neighborhood stand piles of debris from households destroyed by the floodwaters of the Coyote Creek.
More than a hundred San Jose families lined up at assistance centers Saturday looking for help days after getting forced from their homes by flooding from Coyote Creek.
State and federal workers are joining farmers with tractors in round-the-clock battles this week to stave off any chain-reaction failure of rural levees protecting farms and farm towns in California's Central Valley.
The creek has washed out 20 feet of a family's Pleasanton property, putting the property's value in jeopardy.
Evacuated residents have begun returning to homes near the flood-swollen Coyote Creek in San Jose, surveying the damage left behind by the 4-foot or higher torrent of water that forced them flee with little more than the clothes on their backs.
San Jose city officials announced late Wednesday afternoon that the mandatory evacuation area had been reduced as the Coyote Creek floodwaters continued to recede.
City officials admitted Wednesday they were surprised the speed at which floodwaters from the Coyote Creek overwhelmed several neighborhoods, forcing 14,000 residents to quickly flee their homes.
As flooding along Coyote Creek in San Jose continued into the night Tuesday, San Jose officials issued evacuation notices to an area stretching from Capitol Expressway to State Route 237.
Northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 101 just north of Morgan Hill were shut down Tuesday because of a canal failure caused by Anderson Reservoir spillover.
The Coyote Creek overwhelmed a large homeless encampment along its banks Tuesday morning, forcing as many as 20 people to climb into trees to escape the rapidly rising waters.
A potent winter storm, the latest in a seemingly endless series of weather fronts, roared into Northern California early Monday, heightening fears of renewed flooding, mudslides and toppling trees.
It appears California has come out of the drought, with a fury.
Gov. Jerry Brown says the federal government has approved aid to support the rebuilding of the shore of a damaged Oroville dam and help the affected communities.
Caltrans has hired Ghilotti Construction Co. to raise state Highway 37 before more rain is expected to arrive in the Bay Area Thursday.
Environmental activists and local government officials warned more than a decade ago about the risk of catastrophic flooding below a major Northern California dam, but state and federal regulators dismissed those fears at the time.
The Oroville Dam threatened by the possible failure of a damaged emergency spillway that forced the weekend evacuation of almost 200,000 residents has operated under temporary licenses for a decade, according to new reports.
Flooding along train tracks in the Central Valley and a train derailment Friday near Elk Grove both contributed to the three-day cancellation of service on the Altamont Corridor Express commuter train line, an ACE spokesman said.
Chopper 5 was over Oroville Dam in Butte County, a day after 188,000 people downstream along the Feather River were evacuated due to fears of a potential failure of the emergency spillway.
Even as the Bay Area finally got a break Friday from the string of storms passing through the region, the recent rain made the Russian River crest for the second time this week.
State officials said Friday they no longer believe the swollen reservoir will breach the Oroville Dam's emergency spillway.
