At midnight on Friday, the Pajaro River levee in California breached under the pressure of yet another powerful California storm. The 40 foot wide breach immediately prompted the evacuation of 8,500 California residents, including roughly 1,700 from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.

“My heart hurts tonight for the residents of Pajaro. We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight,” said Luis Alejo, the chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

The breach is only the latest development in an unrelenting stream of California storms originating from near Hawaii which are expected to last through the coming week, dumping upwards of 15 inches of rain and 4-8 feet of snow in the highest elevations