Highway 59 in Merced County remains closed due to flooding. Heavy rain expected by mid week
Following the area’s wettest New Year’s Eve on record, a section of Highway 59 in Merced County is expected to remain closed, at least until Thursday or Friday.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the section of highway between Sandy Mush and Reilly roads will be closed for “at least four to five days,” according to a notice posted on the department’s Facebook page Sunday.
Caltrans crews were on hand at the scene Monday, clearing debris and working on the submerged section of highway, just south of the City of Merced.
The flooding happened after the Merced area received .86 inches of rain Saturday and .22 inches Friday, a total of 1.08 inches for this most recent rainstorm, according to the National Weather Service Hanford Office.
Saturday’s rain set a new Dec. 30 record for rainfall, according to NWS. Merced received 2.44 inches of rain total for the week, and 5.22 inches of rain for December. That’s compared to 3.8 inches of rain for December 2021.
Antoinette Serrato, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford, said a small rainstorm was expected to bring about a quarter of an inch of precipitation to Merced on Monday.
A much larger storm is expected to arrive in the Merced area Wednesday morning and remain through Thursday, bringing up to 2 inches of rain. Serrato said the coming weekend may also bring more rain to Merced County.
Residents who need sand bags can pick them up at Merced County fire stations. Local cities are also making sand bags available.
Sacramento County hit hard by storm
Further north, the weekend storm caused massive problems in Sacramento County, flooding part of Highway 99 just south of Elk Grove.
Dozens of vehicles became stranded after rising water from the Cosumnes River submerged parts of Highway 99 and Dillard Road. Highway 99 was opened back up Monday morning.
The New Year’s Eve storm led to widespread power outages and flooding featuring extreme wind gusts out of the north.
The Saturday night storm also knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Sacramento.
By Monday morning, more than 5,600 customers served by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District were still without power, with the largest concentrations of outages in the Land Park, North Sacramento, Oak Park and central city areas of Sacramento.
More than 470 customers in Wilton and Herald, where the Cosumnes River is flooding roadways and homes, were also without power.
The Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 2, 2023 at 12:29 PM.