Heavy snow has caught northern Californians off-guard, even those who have lived in the mountains of Mendocino and Humboldt counties all their lives.
Precipitation is predicted into next week, including warmer atmospheric rivers, though the National Weather Service is not expecting extraordinary flooding when the snow melts.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office is joining the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, CalFire and the Coast Guard for “Operation Hay Drop,” to deliver feed via helicopter to cattle trapped in the snow. Both sheriff’s offices spent the weekend conducting Search and Rescue operations and evacuations. Two people were evacuated in northern Mendocino county and received vouchers from Health and Human Services for hotel rooms.
Lt. Quincy Kromer, of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s office, said this morning that on Thursday and Friday, some of his search and rescue personnel were in Sonoma County, helping law enforcement look for a missing elderly man there. On Friday, they started the first rescue of the weekend.