California floods: Thousands evacuated as heavy rain and mudslides ravage wildfire-stricken regions

'We want you to leave now,' local authorities tell residents in California amid historic floods

Thousands of people along a flooded river were under evacuation orders on Wednesday as a relentless storm pounded Northern California, drenching the San Francisco Bay Area and pummelling the Sierra Nevada with snow.

Some two dozen communities along the Russian River in Sonoma County were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday evening shortly before the waterway passed flood stage. Forecasters predicted it would peak at about 46 feet (14 metres) by Wednesday evening, which would be the highest level in about a quarter-century.

Authorities said evacuations were ordered for about 4,000 people in and around Guerneville, located about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco.

“We want you to leave now,” Sheriff Mark Essick warned. “The roads may become impassable and you may not be able to get out. So even if you live in an area that is not flooding at this moment, you may not be able to get out when the water rises.”

There also was concern about potential mudslides in hillside areas saturated from days of downpours, and in areas scarred by 2017 wildfires.

Earlier in the day, a mudslide near Monte Rio near Guerneville trapped a man and a woman before they were rescued, messy but unharmed.

Elsewhere in Sonoma County, several people had to be rescued from cars that became stranded while trying to drive through flooded roads, including one woman who was rescued by boat.

Several communities also were under evacuation orders in Butte County because of flooded creeks. Other waterways, including the Napa River, also were expected to overflow their banks as an ocean-spanning plume of moisture continued tracking through the West. It already closed roads and schools and toppled trucks and trees from Oregon to Montana.

The National Weather Service also issued flood warnings and flash flood watches for the San Francisco Bay Area and many parts of the Sacramento area, lasting into Thursday morning.

Several mountain and foothill roads were repeatedly closed in the Sierra Nevada region because of whiteout conditions or to clear trucks and cars that spun out on the slippery pavement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report