At least two people have died and some 25 million people in California are under either emergency evacuation and/or flash flood warnings after an atmospheric river storm delivered heavy rain and snow to many parts of the state beginning on Thursday evening and through Friday. As of this writing 34 counties are under a state of emergency, and forecasts estimate that rain will continue throughout the weekend.
The storm, known as a “Pineapple Express,” due to is origins in the warm Pacific waters off the coast of Hawaii, has produced wind gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour and heavy rains leading to the downing of trees and power lines, flooding roads and multiple roof collapses. Despite the fact that the storm was predicted more than a week in advance, hardly any preparations were made by the state or federal governments to protect the population from the deluge.
In the town of Soquel, home to 10,000 people in Santa Cruz County, hundreds of families are trapped after the main road through the Santa Cruz Mountains washed out, forcing its closure. “It’s horrible,” Heather Wingfield, a teacher who has a farm in Soquel, told reporters with the Associated Press. “Hopefully no one has a medical emergency.”
Kathryn Chandler, a Soquel resident, told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview Friday, “My whole family lives up there.” Chandler was attempting to return home Friday, only to find the road had been destroyed. Local officials told the paper they “hoped” to have a “temporary road” built within 24 hours.
In Oakland, California, it is believed the storm played a major role in the partial collapse of a Peet’s Coffee distribution center early Friday morning. One worker, 57-year-old Martin Gonzalez, was killed in the collapse while another worker was sent to the hospital. The collapse is believed to have occurred around 3:15 a.m., according to the Oakland Fire Department.
In a statement issued Friday, Peet’s Coffee spokesperson Mary O’Connell said Gonzalez had been employed with the company “for more than a decade, I think 17 years,” and that the death of the “beloved, liked, well-respected employee … it is really, really a shock for the employees, for all of us.” O’Connell said that the worker was a “team lead” and had arrived for work at 3:00 a.m., the beginning of his shift.
Had the roof collapsed 45 minutes later, O’Connell said it could have landed on as many as 70 people. “The break room is right in that area as well,” she said. “It’s where people started their day. He was there getting ready for the day. It’s unbelievable.”
Hours earlier, Thursday night in rural Pioneer, California, roughly about 60 miles east of Sacramento, the roof of the local Dollar General store collapsed while four workers were inside the building. According to the Amador Fire Protection District, miraculously no workers were injured. The department said the building was a “total loss.”
The fire department did not name a cause of the collapse, but photos posted online show piles of snow surrounding the building and a thick layer of snow on top of the buckling structure.