Both San Joaquin County and the city of Stockton declared local states of emergency Sunday due to a New Year’s storm that tore through Northern California over the weekend.
As clean up and damage assessment continues, the region is also bracing for another series of storms forecasted for later this week that will likely bring additional flooding.
Both the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys saw several inches of rain last week as multiple weather systems dumped precipitation over California’s Central Valley, the largest of which hit over the holiday weekend, bringing widespread flooding, major road closures, property damage, power loss and at least one death.
The county’s emergency proclamation went into effect Sunday and will run through Saturday unless confirmed and ratified by the Board of Supervisors. The board has been in recess for the end-of-year, holiday season since Dec. 14 and is scheduled to have its first meeting of the year Wednesday.
“The emergency was proclaimed because San Joaquin County was affected by a ‘public calamity’ when the Board of Supervisors’ was not in session,” county officials said in a release Sunday.
Stockton City Manager Harry Black, who also acts as the city’s director of emergency services when required, signed the city’s proclamation Sunday as well.
Multiple storm systems that began to hit the region last Wednesday “caused extreme damage to the safety of people and property with the county, including local flooding of communities and local infrastructure and extraordinary stress upon levees and water systems,” county officials said in the release.
The county’s Office of Emergency Services is collecting damage estimates from other county departments, as well as cities and special districts within the county’s jurisdiction.
“This includes unincorporated areas of the County where additional impacts have diverted local resources from day to day operations and the impacts of this storm will likely be beyond the control of services, personnel, equipment, and facilities,” county officials said in the release.
Reports from all over Stockton and the county indicated widespread flooding, power outages, property damage and generally dangerous conditions as the weekend’s storm raged on. Stockton itself saw its wettest December in nearly 70 years and broke a daily precipitation record for the month that stood for nearly 20 years.
“Conditions of disaster and extreme peril to the safety of the persons and property have arisen within the city, caused by uncommon extreme weather conditions” starting Thursday, according to the city’s proclamation.
Black can declare an emergency without City Council approval when the Council is not in session. City Council’s last meeting was Dec. 13 and will meet for the first time this year next week.
