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UP FRONTSaturday 24 March 2018
Powerful storm brought much-needed rain to California
Senior deputy Jeff Farmer with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff office checks the Montecito day showed some stunning reservoirs that are vital to
Creek to make sure it is flowing correctly Thursday March 22, 2018. A powerful storm spread more totals for the three-day local water supplies even
rain across California on Thursday, flooding streets and threatening to unleash mud and debris storm, including more than though the storm forced
flows into communities near areas burned bare by wildfires. 10 inches (25 centimeters) thousands to evacuate
of rain at some locations in their homes due to the
(AP Photo/Daniel Dreifuss) the Sierra Nevada and on threat of destructive de-
the central coast, and 31 bris flows which fortunately
By JOHN ANTCZAK fornia this week brought conditions due to a dry inches (79 centimeters) of did not materialize. A little
Associated Press much-needed rain to the winter that only turned wet snow at Tuolumne Mead- over a year ago, years of
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The state, which has been slip- and snowy this month. ows in the Sierra. drought had reduced a
storm that drenched Cali- ping back into drought Preliminary storm data Fri- In coastal Santa Barba- major reservoir there to less
ra and Ventura counties than 10 percent of capac-
northwest of Los Angeles, ity before the historic rains
where drought conditions of 2017.
have been characterized In the San Joaquin Valley
as severe to extreme, many — part of the Central Val-
locations reported well ley agricultural heartland
over 5 inches (13 centime- of California — the storm
ters) of rain from the storm. brought pluses and minus-
Any addition to the Sierra es.
snowpack is welcome: Run- "It's making it messy," said
off from the 400-mile-long Joe Del Bosque, owner of
(644-kilometer-long) range Del Bosque Farms on the
supplies about a third of west side of the San Joa-
the water used by Califor- quin, where the rain in-
nians each year, but the terrupted his asparagus
most recent measurement harvest for two days and
found its water content to when it resumed workers
be less than 40 percent of had to walk the crop out of
normal. the fields because tractors
For counties like Santa Bar- couldn't be used.
bara, the rain will help fill q
