Sonoma County targeted by President’s Day storm

Another big storm expected to hit the North Coast with a vengeance late today is forecast to raise the lower Russian River ever-so-slightly above flood stage by Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.

The river is projected to crest at 32.8 feet in Guerneville around midday Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.?Flood stage at that location is 32 feet.

In the meantime, the region can expect to be battered by an atmospheric river bringing heavy rain, high, gusting winds, widespread urban and small-stream flooding and pounding ocean surf.

Accumulated rainfall above ?3 inches is expected around the region by early Tuesday, with twice as much possible in the coastal hills, the weather service said.

“It’s a decent amount of rain, that’s for sure,” meteorologist Mark Strudley said.

The rain should start this morning but not become heavy until tonight, when gusting winds are forecast to reach 35 mph inland and ?45 mph in the coastal hills and on the coast, Strudley said.

Winds and rain will be even stronger Monday, the National Weather Service said.

Surf is also expected to be very high and powerful, forecasters said.

The approaching rain could cause more problems in the far north, where damage to spillways of the Lake Oroville dam forced the evacuation of 188,000 people last weekend.

The California Department of Water Resources, however, said Saturday night that the level of Lake Oroville continues to fall despite the stormy weather. And the amount of water flowing down the spillway has been reduced to 55,000 cubic feet per second and continues to be cut, the department said.

Earlier this week, outflows were at nearly 100,000 cubic feet per second.

Northwest of Sacramento, nearly 200 people were evacuated Saturday as overflowing creeks turned the town of Maxwell into a brown pond, with some homes getting 2 feet of water. Nearly 100 homes and the elementary school filled with a couple inches of water.

Southern California was cleaning up Saturday from Friday’s storm, which killed at least three people,

In Victorville, several cars were washed down a flooded street and one man was found dead in a submerged vehicle. In Sherman Oaks, a man was electrocuted when a falling tree downed power lines that hit his car. Searchers on Saturday found the body of a man who was swept down a rain-swollen gully in Thousand Oaks a day earlier.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.