Another Atmospheric River Arrives in California

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s not usually California that makes weather news in the winter. But on Wednesday, an epic storm, the latest in a series of atmospheric rivers, slammed the state’s coast, claiming at least two lives.

Local police and fire officials said a 19-year-old woman in Fairfield, northeast of San Francisco, died after the car she was driving crashed into a utility pole. And a 2-year-old was killed when a redwood fell on a mobile home in Occidental, in Sonoma County.

The storm flooded roads in San Jose and forced evacuations in Santa Barbara and Oakland. More than 180,000 utility customers in California were without power at last count, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages. It blew down a huge canopy over a gas station in South San Francisco and unleashed a rock slide that closed the northbound lanes of Highway 101 in Mendocino County, even as rescue crews in Sacramento County were recovering bodies from the storm last weekend.

Parks, schools and businesses closed, and Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency throughout the state to more quickly marshal a storm response.

“We anticipate that this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” said Nancy Ward, the new director of the governor’s office of emergency services, who succeeded the state’s longtime emergency services chief just five days ago.

The atmospheric river, which is expected to continue into Thursday, is the third storm to march through the Golden State in less than two weeks. A fourth is forecast for the weekend.

Usually, rainfall amounts like those expected this week would not have a significant effect. But the ground in much of the state is already saturated from previous storms and scarred by wildfires, making it especially susceptible to flooding and rapid runoff.

In the Mission District in San Francisco, doors of apartment buildings, coffee shops and restaurants were blocked with sandbags as rain began to pick up Wednesday evening. Over the weekend, several streets and businesses in the low-lying neighborhood flooded as water pooled more than a foot deep in the streets. Refrigerators and other appliances on display outside a repair shop began to float away on Saturday.

Zoe Williams, sales director for Three Babes Bakeshop, next door to the refrigerator repair shop, squinted at the rain outside her store window on Wednesday. The bakery also flooded with a few inches of water on Saturday and water began coming up through the drains, but workers cleared it away, sanitized the store and quickly reopened.

On Wednesday night, Williams and her co-workers were crossing their fingers that the shop would make it through this latest storm unscathed. Before heading home for the day, they stacked sandbags outside the entrance, she said, adding, “It’s kind of a wait and see.”

California typically gets most of its annual rain in the winter months, but this many storms sweeping through in rapid succession can do more harm than good. These clusters of big storms — which may be becoming more common because of climate change — deliver too much water too quickly for the state’s reservoirs and emergency responders to handle, The Times’s Raymond Zhong reported.

“It’s really helpful if the storms would be so kind as to space themselves out a week or two apart so we have time for water to move through the system,” Jeanine Jones, an official with California’s Department of Water Resources, told him.

Despite the dangers, some Californians were still grateful for any form of precipitation after so many months of drought. The last three years have been the driest in more than 125 years in the state.

Don Bransford, who has a farm north of Sacramento in Colusa County, saw potential relief from the ravages of last year, when drought parched his land and reduced his rice crop from about 1,800 acres to zero. Don Cameron, who grows produce including carrots and wine grapes in the southern San Joaquin Valley, said he did not mind that he had to buy pumps to move water away from several hundred acres of onions.

“This is really a godsend,” Cameron said, “just to see these storms lining up and hitting California dead-on.”

Tell us: How is the storm affecting you? Email us at CAToday@nytimes.com with your stories and photos.

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Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Doris Bowen, who recommends visiting San Francisco’s biggest park:

“I visit San Francisco often, and I’m fortunate to stay within a couple of blocks of Golden Gate Park. The park is filled with so much beauty! There are museums, a Ferris wheel, a band shell (often with free concerts), fountains, a Conservatory of Flowers, many different gardens and meadows, a large lake suitable for boating and bird watching, a windmill and multiple trails. There’s even a softball field with plenty of benches to sit on and enjoy the games. Literally, there is something for everyone in the park. One of the main roads in the park (J.F.K. Drive) is closed to through traffic and open for walkers, bicyclists and everyone else. If you want to walk the length of the park, start at the east end and walk to the ocean — it’s about three miles, all downhill. And you might get to see the bison! To return, catch a Muni bus or train. Most of all, enjoy spending time in a beautiful urban park.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

And before you go, some good news

The New York Times recently published an article about Tom Brady — sort of.

Brady, the football star, is 45 years old, which puts him in the top 1 percent in terms of age for starting quarterbacks. The Times interviewed people who are as old in their jobs as Brady is in his — in other words, the oldest 1 percent of the work force, across a range of professions.

The Times spoke to a 72-year-old biology professor at Cal State Northridge. An 88-year-old composer who lives on the Central Coast. And, in Los Angeles County, a 70-year-old paramedic, a job for which the median age is 33.

The paramedic, Jesse Izaguirre, works two 24-hour shifts each week transporting patients around Los Angeles. He bounces in and out of the ambulance. By his account, which The New York Times could not independently verify, nurses guess he’s in his 50s.

“Some people ask, ‘When are you going to retire?’” Izaguirre told The Times. “I say, ‘First of all, it’s none of your darn business.’” He laughed. “I’m kidding. I’ll tell them anything. When am I going to retire? Hopefully never.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Briana Scalia and Isabella Grullón Paz contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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