Flood — Yuba, California

2018-03-22 to 2018-03-27 · near Marysville, Yuba, California

Event narrative

Heavy rain caused a railroad bridge in Marysville to sink. The bridge spans the Yuba River. Rail traffic over the bridge was shut down. A diesel pipeline attached to the bridge also had to be shut down. Union Pacific Railroad drove in new piles to stabilize the bridge. Repairs were completed on March 27.

Wider weather episode

Torrential rain from an atmospheric river with locally heavy convective showers brought flash flooding to portions of the northern Sierra and Motherlode foothills. The heaviest flooding was in Groveland, where 4-5 of rain fell, combining with 8-9 of rain in higher elevations upstream. There was also widespread damage in Tuolumne County to roads from debris flows, soil erosion, erosion of water conveyance systems, sewer systems that were inundated with excess water and debris. Roads damaged inluded state Highways 49 and 132. Moccasin Dam was damaged and came close to failure, with road closures. A tornado struck an amphitheater in Wheatland and caused minor damage. Heavy snow caused travel problems over Sierra highways.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.1642, -121.6145)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 747175. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.