Santa Cruz County Resilience Digest

Who pays for storm damage from fallen trees? As Northern California dries out, a new set of questions are facing residents.

Children have been displaced, with families living out of cars, sleeping in emergency shelters or moving out of Monterey County to stay with relatives.

With wind gusts up to 80 mph in Santa Cruz County Tuesday, numerous fallen trees led to outages and closed roads around the region.

California State Parks will commence work on March 20 on the damaged pier at Seacliff State Beach, with demolition expected to take six weeks and leave no visible portions of the pier.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited storm-battered Pájaro, touring flooded areas in a high-water rescue vehicle provided by the California National Guard, and later spoke about the devastation that has afflicted this community and others around the state.

Loch Lomond is the primary water storage facility, but it sometimes relies on the reservoir during periods of heavy storms.

In his initial climate budget proposal, the governor has cut about $561 million from local coastal resilience projects. Legislators, cities express concerns.

Wet conditions have hampered further progress on stabilizing a slope in Ben Lomond to allow for one-way traffic. Glen Arbor Road remains the available detour.

Capitola City Manager Jamie Goldstein said during a recent City Council meeting that overall storm damage costs have grown to $3.4 million—up from $2.6 million—due to updated permitting and design fees for repairs.

Building any structure on the active beach is asking for problems, and this is precisely what has happened at several locations along the northern Monterey Bay shoreline as well as elsewhere in coastal California, writes columnist Gary Griggs.

A freeze warning is in effect until 9 a.m. Saturday as the winter storm closed roads, and felled trees and power lines.

“I want to highlight what an amazing job our city has done in the wake of the storms of 2023,” writes Margaux Keiser.

What California’s big winter storms mean for the future, as sea level rise is makes storms more complicated.

Storm victims can now visit Santa Cruz County's Recovery Permit Center, where 4Leaf Inc. workers are available to help speed up the process.

A bicyclist went where cars couldn't and documented the effects of atmospheric river deluges in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Bruce McPherson formally requested the update, saying his office is frequently questioned on the subject and he's "just a little concerned about how it has gone."

Watsonville Mayor Eduardo Montesino writes, “The start of 2023 was far from what anyone expected it to be.”

Closed for more than a month by a mudslide between lower Glen Arbor Road and Holiday Lane in Ben Lomond, it should be open by then assuming weather conditions remain favorable.

As seismic engineers study the earthquakes that killed more than 20,000, it's becoming clear that a significant cause involved a building design common in California.

Mark Strudley of the new Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency lays out the race against time to build the levee project before the next devastating storms. There are many hurdles, including agency coordination.

Santa Cruz County was so worried about flooding at Old Mill Estates mobile home park that a 1990 master plan called for the property to be turned into a flood buffer for Soquel Village. Why didn’t that happen?

Santa Cruz citizens and neighbors are summoning energy and vision to “Save West Cliff.” Next up: a Feb. 13 “community conversation” about the iconic 2.7-mile promenade.

The grant was provided through the California Public Utilities Commission's Local Area Technical Assistance program.

In response to catastrophic damage this winter, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks has established the Seacliff State Beach Recovery Fund.

Sarah Christensen, senior transportation engineer, said her team had discovered two slope embankment failures.

"We get asked about these numbers all the time," Supervisor Bruce McPherson said.

It's a Golden State paradox: Dry winters can pave the way for fire seasons fueled by dead vegetation, but wet winters spur new growth that can later act as fuel for flames.

Initial assessments are still under way, but as of Jan. 23, clean-up and repair work on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line could be as high as $3 million.

Sentinel columnist Gary Griggs writes that four forces combined this January to recreate the conditions of the destructive winter of 1983, now 40 years later.

Residents of Brookside Drive and Pine Drive have been without power for more than two weeks after toppled trees took down electrical wires.

Santa Cruz County staple Marianne's Ice Cream joined Woodstock's Pizza in donating food for the visiting delegation of officials and first responders.

Federal regulators rebuffed a request that could have smoothed a path to a longer operating life for Diablo Canyon.