A levee break on a storm-swollen river in California’s central coast has quadrupled in size, complicating repair efforts Monday and spilling floodwaters into farmland and agricultural communities — even as yet another atmospheric river took aim at the swamped state.
The Pajaro River’s levee rupture grew to at least 400 feet (120 meters) since it failed late Friday, officials said. More than 8,500 people were forced to evacuate, and around 50 people had to be rescued as the water rose.
Built in the late 1940s to provide flood protection, the levee has been a known risk for decades with several breaches in the 1990s. Emergency repairs to a section of the berm were