Powerful New Storm Batters N. California

As a powerful new storm hit Northern California on Tuesday, causing flood warnings in 12 counties, federal officials said they would open spill gates today to slow the rise of water behind Folsom Dam near Sacramento.

So much runoff was entering Folsom’s reservoir that the water level was expected to rise 14 feet to the spillway gates by this morning. Throughout the elaborate California water system, state and federal officials were juggling to prepare for the latest weather onslaught.

“We haven’t had a storm that portends to be as big as this one in 10 years,” Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, told the Associated Press. “We are anticipating the worst, and we’ve got operational plans to deal with it.”

Part of the strategy involves reducing the flow into the Sacramento River from giant Shasta Dam near Redding, from 50,000 cubic feet a second to 15,000. The Sacramento, the state’s key waterway, is already swollen by heavy flows from its tributaries. The outflow from Folsom into the American River will reach the Sacramento at the state capital.

“We will let Shasta Lake fill by Friday to close to its maximum 4.5 million acre-feet,” McCracken said. “The [National] Weather Service tells us the storm will have abated by then, and side flow into the Sacramento will be less.

“If the storms occur as projected, we feel confident we have a strategy to move water on by without major flooding in the Sacramento Valley.”

But the state Department of Water Resources said the latest storm in what was an unusually wet December in Northern California could send water over flood stage by early today along the Russian, Napa, Eel and Klamath rivers.

By evening, flood emergencies had been declared in Alpine, Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Sonoma, Humboldt, Amador, Tehama, Glenn, Yuba, Mendocino and Del Norte counties.

Interstate 5, the main highway north from the Sacramento Valley to Oregon, was closed for hours south of Dunsmuir by a massive mudslide. Also temporarily shut was U.S. 50 over the Sierra. Landslides closed U.S. 199 near Crescent City as well as a segment of U.S. 101 in northern Mendocino County, blocking the primary route into neighboring Humboldt County. On the Russian River, the owner of a video store in Guerneville vowed to leave ahead of the flood waters.

“I’m taking everything,” Mike Weaver said. “I’ve got 2,000 videos. I’m taking them to my house [which] doesn’t flood. I’ve had six different predictions of water levels. I just can’t take a chance.”

The Russian was expected to crest at 45 feet at Guerneville by early today. The river spills its banks at 32 feet.

In Geyserville, about 20 miles north of Santa Rosa, storm waters turned roadways into rivers, stranding motorists and forcing many of the town’s 1,000 residents to take refuge inside their homes on a night when they would otherwise be out paying social calls.

“It’s just pouring right now and the wind is kicking up big time,” said Beverly Midson, secretary for the Geyserville Chamber of Commerce. “They are not conditions you would want to go out in. It’s a miserable night to be out.”

There have been repeated predictions in the last week of heavy storms, some of which did not turn out to be as bad as forecasters had thought.

But heavy rain and high winds were widely reported late Tuesday, and state record keepers said eight stations in the Cascade and Sierra ranges reported an average of 27.5 inches of rain in December alone.

“This is almost triple normal,” said Pierre Stephens of the Department of Water Resources.

Stephens said the snowpack was 120% of normal for this time of year in the northern Sierra, 170% in the central Sierra and 200% in the southern Sierra.

McCracken at the Bureau of Reclamation said water runoff entering reservoirs was 235% of normal at Folsom and 195% of normal at Shasta. In Northern California the wettest month of the year typically is January.

“Right now, we’re going into a critical period,” said Tom Mullins, chief spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services.

In San Francisco, organizers of a big New Year’s Eve celebration near the waterfront erected huge tents with steel girders to protect thousands of party-goers.

Associated Press contributed to this story.

* DELUGE CONTINUES: Another storm rolls into battered Northwest. A24

* PARADE OUTLOOK: Clouds, but not rain, expected for Rose Parade. B1