SAN DIEGO — Another storm system is on the way with areas in Central and Northern California under flood watch.
The rain has been falling in the Bay Area all afternoon, and snow levels are rising in the Sierra Nevada. Here in Southern California, the rain could be dangerous for people in the San Bernardino Mountains, where there is still heavy snow from last week.
In San Diego County, crews were hard at work Thursday repairing a massive sink hole in Cardiff that opened up last month, and with the upcoming rainstorm, the sink hole could worsen.
“That’s really what caused it initially was the multiple rain storms, so that’s what really blew it out,” said Sue Scott, who has lived in the area for 20 years.
Encinitas city crews have been making progress moving utilities and shoring up the support structure underneath the road on Lake Drive between Sea Village Way and Wales Drive after damage from a ruptured storm water pipe worsened during the rains last month.
“It’s been so dry for so many years, then we add a bunch of rain, and you never know how old those pipes are,” said Scott.
Another atmospheric river is bringing a massive storm system that will likely drench areas in Central and Northern California Thursday night and into the weekend, with 17 million Californians under flood watches, but most of the impacts will be to the north of San Diego County.
“We are getting at least the weak side of an atmospheric river to move into our region down here in Southern California,” said Brian Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service San Diego. “The primary impacts are going to be up in the San Bernardino Mountains, unfortunately, fresh off of last week’s blizzard that dropped feet on feet of snow to a lot of the mountain communities.”
In the San Bernardino Mountains, many people’s homes and cars have been trapped on all sides by snow that just keeps piling higher. People in Lake Arrowhead and other mountain communities like Crestline have spent weeks with shovels in hand.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office says at least one person was killed in the previous storm while eleven others were found dead during welfare checks. Even after two weeks, people there are struggling.
"It's probably about a million cubic yards to dig out,” said John Bays, who lives in Lake Arrowhead. “It's a daunting task."
The National Weather Service warns the added rain could be dangerous for places already buried in heavy snow.
“Any houses that would potentially still have a lot of snow still sitting on the roofs or anything like that, all of that water is going to be compounding on top of itself, it’s going to become really, really heavy,” said Adams, who predicts we may see a quarter to a half inch of rain here in San Diego County this weekend.
“It’s really going to look more of a like a beneficial rain than anything else, just kind of enough to wet the ground, help our plants grow a little bit, maybe continue to alleviate some drought basically,” said Adams.
Even with the forecasted rain on the way, city crews for Encinitas claim they’re on schedule to complete the sinkhole repairs in a few weeks.
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