SAN JOSE, Calif. — Joany Morgan looked at her home in despair, the blue-hued house sitting in a foot of muddy water just across from the historic Felton Covered Bridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Yet again, the San Lorenzo River had crested its banks, triggering a fresh round of evacuations Saturday as another winter storm battered Santa Cruz County.
“It looks awful,” Morgan said. “There’s so much stuff — our garbage cans keep coming and going, we’ve got so much debris and mud.”
Morgan and her family were already staying at a hotel, when the latest evacuation order came down but were hoping authorities would allow them back in their home on Saturday. She remembered nervously monitoring river level gauges online last week, watching as they showed the water level steadily rise.
