By CapRadio staff
Updated at 8:25 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 1
This story is no longer being updated, find updated information here.
Around 45,000 SMUD customers remain without power Sunday morning as powerful winds followed a day of historic rainfall across Northern California that caused flooding throughout the region. In Yolo County, around 25,000 PG&E customers were also without power.
The outages affected residents throughout the county, with reports of downed trees in many areas. Gusts up to 64 mph were recorded at the Sacramento International Airport and up to 56 mph in Davis, according to the National Weather Service.
As of 10:25 p.m. Saturday, approximately 154,141 SMUD customers were without power in more than 500 separate outages. That number is now down to 43,456 as of 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
"SMUD crews are responding to outages across the region during this powerful winter storm," the utility tweeted Saturday evening. "SMUD is monitoring conditions, preparing additional resources and will continue to work as quickly and as safely as possible to restore power during this weather event."
The SMUD outage map as of 8:27 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 1, 2022.
Sacramento County declared a state of emergency on Saturday evening. The New Year's Eve storm has prompted evacuation warnings and shelter-in-place orders across Sacramento County and nearby communities.
The county advised some residents in the area of Wilton near Cosumnes Road and Wilton Road to seek higher ground just after 9:30 pm. Saturday due to an imminent levee failure in that area on the Cosumnes River after the NWS issued a flash flood warning in the area.
The affected areas are:
- South of Wilton Road
- West of Cosumnes River
- North of Gay Roas
Residents are advised to call 2-1-1 for further information and to only call 9-1-1 for life-threatening emergencies.
The town of Wilton — approximately a half-hour from downtown Sacramento — is under a mandatory shelter-in-place order due to rising waters making roads impassable.
Wilton residents were first warned to evacuate, but officials quickly switched to a shelter-in-place order when nearby roads proved impassable.
In El Dorado County, some residents of Cameron Park were forced to evacuate due to flooding, as well.
Communities in the Sacramento metro area have experienced anywhere from one to nearly 5 inches of rain in the past 24 hours.
A flood warning remains in effect for much of the Sacramento Valley until 10 a.m. Sunday. Sacramento’s National Weather Service is warning of possible flooding over the next day in multiple communities, as well.
The New Year’s weekend storm has brought unexpected levels of rain as a winter storm lingered over the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area. In downtown San Francisco, the storm appears to have dropped a single-day record amount of rain, the most since 1849.
The Cosumnes River, which spans the southeastern reaches of Sacramento County, is forecasted to see its highest water levels in 25 years.
In the mountains, Interstates 50 and 80 each closed for times due to weather, but as of Sunday morning have reopened.
Meteorologists and climate experts remain concerned that storms in the coming week will bring additional inches of rain and prompt more flooding. Light to moderate precipitation is expected to resume Monday into Tuesday, with possible heavy rain Wednesday through Friday that could bring further flooding and difficult mountain travel.
Sandbags are available at several locations in Sacramento, San Joaquin and El Dorado counties. Officials are urging drivers to avoid flooded roads and not drive through water.
Follow us for more stories like this
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
Donate Today
