14,000 evacuated in California city due to flooding

Los Angeles:

Flooding in the California city of San Jose forced authorities to order the evacuation of 14,000 people due to the rising waters of Coyote Creek, media reports said.
According to information provided on the San Jose City Hall Web site, the evacuation was ordered late Tuesday evening and is still in effect on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The National Weather Service said on Wednesday that the water level in Coyote Creek will continue to rise on Wednesday morning, but it is expected to begin subsiding in the afternoon.

In remarks to the daily Los Angeles Times, NWS meteorologist Roger Gass emphasized the magnitude of the flooding by saying that estimates are that such an event occurs only once every century.

Local media showed images of emergency services personnel using boats to rescue local residents endangered by flooding along streets in the area.

After years of serious drought, California is experiencing a very wet winter with exceptionally heavy and continuous rainfall all over the state.

Last Friday, a powerful storm lashed the state causing at least five deaths, authorities said.

In addition, the historic rains caused damage to spillways at the Oroville Dam, located some 250 kmnortheast of San Francisco, leading authorities on February 12 to order the evacuation of some 200,000 people from the zone below the dam given the risk that it might overflow.

–IANS

World/US