Downpours have caused a nearby creek to overflow and pour hazardous, trash-strewn water into two neighborhoods. More than half of California has been under flood, wind and snow advisories in the past week.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. J. Sanchez
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Thousands of San Jose residents have been forced to evacuate their homes after waist-high flood waters swamped a number of neighborhoods in the northern Californian city on Tuesday as stormy weather continued in the US state.
Murky, trash-strewn water inundated whole city blocks in the low-lying Rock Springs and Williams Street neighborhoods, as the nearby Coyote Creek overflowed after days of heavy downpours. Residents of some 600 creek-side mobile homes were also ordered to move to higher ground as waterways began to swell.
Evacuated residents were taken to try land and rinsed off to prevent them from being falling ill after floodwaters had traveled through garbage, sewer lines and other hazardous pollutants.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo acknowledged that municipal officials should have responded faster to the flood warnings and evacuated people sooner. "As I sit here today and I look out at a neighborhood that's completely inundated with water ... there's no question in my mind there was a failure of some kind," he said.
According to city officials, there were no reported injuries, although at least 300 homes were said to have been damaged by flooding.
Some 300 homes in neighborhoods near San Jose's Coyote Creek are said to have been badly damaged.Image: picture-alliance/AA/T. Cokun
Winter storms slam California
Tuesday's flooding is the latest in a series of heavy downpours that have swept the once draught-stricken US state of California.
In the past week, around half the state has been under flood, wind or snow advisories. Many areas reported at least 3 inches (8 centimeters) of rain, while some received far more. The Big Sur region outside the city of Santa Rosa saw more than 8 inches, according to weather officials.
Last week, storms damaged two spillways on the Lake Oroville Dam around 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco. The damage raised major flood warnings and prompted the evacuation of more than 100,000 people downstream.
Dry weather is expected to return to the region on Wednesday.
Winter storms in California
One of California's strongest storms in years, dubbed a "bombogenesis" or "weather bomb", has hit the state, killing two and bringing torrential rain and flash floods.
Image: Getty Images/D. McNew
Heavy rains after years of drought
Firefighters resue a woman from her car in Sun Valley, Southern California. After years of severe drought, heavy winter rains have saturated the drought-parched ground with a series of storms in recent weeks. They have since returned with a vengeance to the northern part of the state after briefly raging over Southern California.
Image: Getty Images/D. McNew
Glory Hole bathtub drain
Water flows into the iconic Glory Hole spillway at Monticello Dam in Lake Berryessa for the first time in a over a decade due to the recent storms. The unique spillway operates similarly to a bathtub drain. The last time it spilled over was in 2006.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP Photo/E. Risberg
Water level keeps falling at Oroville Dam
Water continues to move down the damaged spillway at Oroville Dam. Last weekend, overflow waters from the emergency spillway eroded much of the area below. The California Department of Water Resources continues to examine and repair the erosion, placing 1,200 tons of material on the spillway per hour using helicopters and heavy construction equipment.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/ ZUMA Wire/B. Baer
Seems it does rain in Southern California!
Schoolchildren get caught in heavy rain during a school excursion in Los Angeles. Up north, San Francisco has been hit by 24.5 inches (60 cm) of rain since October 1- more than it normally gets in a year.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M.Ralston
Sinkhole swallowed two cars
A large 20-foot-deep (6 meter) sinkhole that swallowed two vehicles in Los Angeles is cordoned-off. The storm blew in from the Pacific Ocean, hitting California with high winds and heavy rain that downed power lines, leaving 60,000 people in the Los Angeles area without power and prompting hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at airports.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
Massive waves in Southern California
People watch large waves at El Porto beach, located on Santa Monica Bay. Meanwhile, evacuations were ordered in Northern California and flash-flood warnings were issued elsewhere as downpours swelled creeks and rivers to potentially dangerous levels in the already sodden region.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Ralston
Gusts of wind at Huntington Beach
The downpours swelled watercourses that already teetered near or above flood levels and left about half of the state under flood, wind and snow advisories.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J. C. Hong
San Jose neighborhoods flooded by murky waste water
Around 1,000 homes had to be evacuated after a San Jose creek overflowed its banks, causing murky, trash-strewn water to inundate two entire neighborhoods. According to city officials, there were no injuries, although at least 300 homes were reportedly damaged by flooding.
