Woman, 18, stranded in a submerged car for an hour as California flood waters rose around her

An 18-year-old woman was trapped on her submerged vehicle for an hour as California continues to be drenched in heavy rain.

Lizbeth Hernandez had to be rescued in Casserly Creek after water dragged her truck off Paulsen Road in Watsonville and submerged the vehicle two meters deep. The young woman, who cannot swim, stood shivering atop her vehicle as she waited for rescue.

She was returned to solid ground on a surfboard-like device and she was seen crying as rescuers walked her up a carriageway to higher ground.

Two men were notified of her distress by a local resident who heard her scream for help. They hurried to her assistant and a moment later the police arrived.

“We saw her cry and cry and ask for help,” Justin O’Brien told the Santa Cruz Guard. ‘Then the [Sheriff’s Office] immediately sprang into action.’

Hernandez told officers they stood in the icy water for an hour before they arrived to rescue her.

“She was experiencing numbness in her lower extremities, so we just kept talking to her and updating her that help is coming and we just tried to do our best to keep her focused,” said Shon Leonetti, lieutenant of the United States’ office. the sheriff of Santa Cruz County.

According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Hernandez was taken to shore two hours after he skidded off the road.

“If it had lasted much longer, she probably would have gone in and she doesn’t swim, so it would have been a bad result,” Leonetti said. “If you see a flooded road, it’s a very good reason not to take the risk and drive through it.”

Authorities have also confirmed that two people have died from the storms, but no other information has been released.

The storm continues to drench central and northern California with excessive rainfall as it dumps more than 25 times as much water as the Mississippi River. Some areas received more than a foot of rain.

Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Thursday evening as 15 million people are on flood warnings and nearly 30,000 are currently without power. Ten thousand are also evacuated.

Meanwhile, California’s mountain communities are stranded as feet of dense snow make it nearly impossible for some to leave their homes.

Due to severe flooding, the Oroville Dam’s main spillway has been opened to help offset the inflow. It is the first time since April 2019 that the drought-stricken state has opened the dam.

Shelters have also been opened in nine provinces to provide a place to stay for those who have been evacuated, police said. CNN.

The state’s transportation department, CalTran, also increased the number of workers on duty during the storm to help clear debris and rescue stranded drivers. They also deployed 36 high water vehicles to assist in rescue efforts.

A 104-year-old woman had to be rescued from her home in Fresno after becoming stranded in her home.

In Tulare County, authorities are evacuating residents at a rapid pace as rushing floodwaters destroy homes, collapse bridges and topple trees.

About 700 people were trapped in Soquel, California, after a pipe burst, leading to massive flooding and a collapsed roadway. The roadway led into the city, leaving the city’s inhabitants completely isolated.

“We’re an island now,” Soquel resident Molly Watson told CNN.

‘It’s terrible. Hopefully no one has a medical emergency,” Heather Wingfield said CBS news.

It could take days for the roadway to be prepared, preventing residents from leaving, the outlet said.

The massive storm hit the west coast for the first time on Thursday evening, putting 21 provinces under a state of emergency while evacuation orders were issued in several coastal provinces.

More than 9,000 California residents were under evacuation orders Friday, confirmed Nancy Ward, director of the California Office of Emergency Services. There are also 15 shelters open in the state.

According to the forecaster, the past few weeks have seen some of the most destructive weather events on the West Coast in decades, with snow depths across the state currently 215 percent higher than normal Snoflo.

In Lake Tahoe, where the storm was preceded by the historic blizzard, residents are being quoted $20,000 to get the snow off their roofs, which would likely violate state gouging laws. The New York Times.

Snow levels in the Sierra Nevada, which supplies about one-third of the state’s water supply, are more than 180 percent of the April 1 average, when it is historically at its highest.

The high-altitude snowpack is so massive that it was expected to absorb the rain but start melting snow below 4,000 feet, potentially contributing to flooding, forecasters said.