MENDOCINO CO., 9/22/26 — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a state of emergency in Mendocino County over February’s storm damage and ordered Caltrans to seek federal money to fix highways here.
The storms hit Glenn, Humboldt and Mendocino counties from Feb. 15 through Feb. 24 with heavy rain, snow and wind gusts over 65 mph. The order tells Caltrans to formally ask for help for Humboldt and Mendocino counties through the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program, which pays for highway repairs and reconstruction.
Also on Monday, Newsom declared a statewide emergency to get California ready for what federal forecasters expect to be a very strong El Niño winter. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center put the chances of a very strong El Niño this fall and winter at greater than 90% in its Aug. 13 report, according to the proclamation.
He also declared an emergency in Lake County, where a force main maintained by the Lake County Sanitation District ruptured on Robin Lane in Clearlake on Jan. 11 and sent an estimated 2.9 million gallons of sewage into residential areas. That order opens the door to state disaster assistance, but only for emergency protective measures until the California Department of Water Resources finishes investigating what caused the rupture, according to the proclamation.
The statewide emergency order names no county. It directs the Department of Water Resources to stage sandbags, rock, plastic sheeting and pumps, and has Caltrans position traffic-control and road-closure equipment along the highways most at risk. The state’s Division of Safety of Dams is to contact dam owners about their inspection and emergency duties.
It also suspends competitive bidding and other contracting rules so state agencies can buy supplies quickly, and directs environmental agencies to speed permits for local flood work such as levee repairs, debris removal and channel clearing. The California Coastal Commission is to expedite permits for coastal communities preparing for El Niño, and to flag any missing items in an application within five days.
“This is not an ordinary El Niño event,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the California Institute for Water Resources at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, said in a Sept. 14 phone interview. He said forecasters are now predicting, with pretty high confidence, “the strongest El Niño event on record by potentially a significant margin.”
An event that size shifts the odds “quite discernibly in the direction of wet for virtually all of California,” Swain said, and that includes Mendocino County. “It doesn’t guarantee apocalyptic flooding, but it does greatly increase the likelihood of a wet winter.” It probably raises the flood risk too, he said, and lowers the risk of drought.
El Niño also raises sea level along the coast by a foot or two for the winter, about as much as climate change has raised it over the past centuries, Swain said. “It’s kind of like suddenly doubling the amount of climate change-related sea level rise along the Mendocino Coast,” he said. Low roads near estuaries, bays and river mouths, which he said turn up along Highways 1 and 101, could flood from the ocean itself, not just from rain.
Since 1950, there have been nine strong or very strong El Niño events, and in those years the North Coast had three wetter-than-normal winters, three drier and three near normal, the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services said Monday, citing the National Weather Service.
Lake Mendocino is half full, and above average for this time of year. It held 61,178 acre-feet on Monday, against a capacity of 122,400 acre-feet. That’s 105% of its historical average for the date, according to the state’s California Data Exchange Center.
County OES will hold its annual pre-winter weather coordination meeting in October, where the weather service will present forecasts and OES will go over the county’s Flood Response Plan and an upcoming exercise to test it. The meeting isn’t public, though the county said what’s discussed there will be shared.
The county has two state flood-fight containers, one inland and one coastal, and in past years has provided sand and bags in flood-threatened areas at the request of local fire chiefs, OES said.
County OES urges residents to sign up for both MendoAlert, which sends notices by text, email and reverse 911 call, and Nixle. Preparedness information is at MendoReady.org. Residents should plan more than one evacuation route, since downed trees and water can close main roads, and know that the law enforcement Hi-Lo siren means to grab a go-bag and leave immediately.
Might want to get sandbags early….