More than 1,500 people evacuated when California river breaches levee

A fresh atmospheric river pummeling the state has caused flooding as rivers swell past their banks; experts say more wet weather is coming

Authorities ordered more than 1,500 people to evacuate early Saturday from a northern California agricultural community famous for its strawberry crop after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river pummeling the state.

Monterey county officials on Saturday said the break in the levee – upstream from the unincorporated community of Pajaro along California’s central coast – is about 100 feet (30.48m ) wide. Crews had gone door to door Friday afternoon to urge residents to leave before the rains came but some stayed and had to be pulled from floodwaters early Saturday.