California rivers fed by this winter’s massive Sierra Nevada snowpack have been turned into deadly torrents, drawing warnings from public safety officials ahead of the Memorial Day weekend’s traditional start of outdoor summer recreation.
At least seven people, including two children, have died or gone missing this spring in the grasp of powerful rivers plunging down from California’s towering mountain range, and there have been numerous rescues.
“This year we’re seeing higher water, faster water and colder water,” said Capt. Justin Sylvia, a fire spokesperson in Sacramento, which is crossed by the American River.
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Sacramento has already had 20 water rescues this year, nearly as many as all of 2022, Sylvia said Tuesday as crews practiced swift-water rescues on the lower American River near its confluence with the Sacramento River.
Memorial Day weekend is typically one of the busiest, if not the busiest, times of the year, and “floating down the American River is like a quintessential Sacramento activity,” said Ken Casparis, spokesperson for Sacramento County regional parks.
“Probably thousands of people use the river for floating or swimming or rafting, what have you, and this weekend conditions are shaping up to be pretty dangerous, so we have been urging people to stay off the river,” he said.
Even just wading along the shore is being discouraged, said Casparis, who was hoping for chilly weather to discourage river use. Forecasters predicted mild weather in the interior of Northern California except for chances of thunderstorms in the mountains.
With Californians expected to flock to the outdoors, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services on Thursday issued a broad caution about conditions they might encounter, including fast-moving water, following months of severe weather.
An extraordinary series of storms this past winter buried the Sierra range in deep snow that is now…
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