Watch CBS News

Close Call For Caltrans Truck After Landslide On Highway 1

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Heavy rains and high winds in Northern California have closed schools and roads Friday, including a portion of state highway 1 where overnight slides nearly toppled a Caltrans dump truck with an employee inside.

Crews were responding to an initial slide around 3 a.m. north of Westport in Mendocino County when a second slide came down, nearly pushing the dump truck over the edge of the highway, Caltrans public information officer Phil Frisbie Jr. said.

The truck ended up at a 45-degree angle, stopped by a guardrail. The employee was uninjured, and the road will stay closed indefinitely, Frisbie said.

Meanwhile, flood watches and warnings blanketed Northern California as the latest in a series of storms moved in, adding more moisture to an already wet March that has made up for a mostly bone-dry February in the drought-stricken state.

A Pacific storm system also is expected to move down through the Central Coast and into Southern California, bringing rain, possible thunderstorms and mountain snow lowering to 5,000-foot elevations.

Elsewhere in Mendocino County, a two-lane portion of U.S. 101 was down to one lane Friday morning after an overnight slide of rocks and trees closed the highway completely for several hours north of Leggett.

"If motorists come across a slide before Highway Patrol or Caltrans is there, they need to make sure they stay far back or there could be secondary slides," Frisbie said.

Flood warnings were in effect for the Napa River near St. Helena and the Russian River near Guerneville, the National Weather Service's San Francisco Bay Area office said. Winter storm warnings for heavy snow were also issued for the Sierra Nevada, with some expected to remain in effect until Monday.

The rain is welcome in California, which is entering its fifth year of drought.

Nearly all the state's major reservoirs hold far less water than average for this time of year, the Department of Water Resources said.

Water experts have said that one wet year won't be enough to end the drought, given the deficit from the driest four-year period on record.

The Sierra snowpack, which normally stores about 30 percent of California's water supply, was only 83 percent of the March 1 average.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.