Recent rain total in O.C.? $13 million. Supervisors declare emergency

The storms that doused Orange County earlier this month caused an estimated $13 million worth of damage to public property, according to local communities.

On Tuesday, those reports prompted the county’s Board of Supervisors to declare a local emergency, the second in two years due to winter storms.

The declaration will allow local cities and public agencies to repair infrastructure with matching federal and state funds, the latter of which became available Tuesday after California Gov. Gavin Newsom also declared a State of Emergency in response to the recent storms.

This February already has been the wettest on record since 2005 in Santa Ana (5.5 inches), Newport Beach (3.3 inches), and likely beyond, according to the National Weather Service.

The heavy rainfall has battered roads and bridges, downed trees, induced mudflows, scarred levees and dams, and harmed public parks and recreation areas. The damaged areas stretch at least from the Orange County-controlled Prado wetlands near Corona down to Laguna Beach.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees early damage assessment efforts by federal and state authorities, could not immediately provide a list of the 10 local cities and agencies that submitted reports of damage.

The county’s most recent rainstorm emergency came in January 2017. And while that storm was more substantial in terms of rainfall, it had a lower initial damage estimate of $11 million.

So why have the recent storms been more destructive?

Samantha Connolly, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the rains this month came in shorter but more powerful bursts.

“That’s different than in past years,” Connolly said. “That might be why they saw so much damage.”

On Tuesday, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services surveyed damaged areas of Orange County to vet the early $13 million estimate.

Connolly predicted the county would see a normal level of rainfall in March. But locals should prepare for showers this weekend, she said, when a quarter-inch to a half-inch of rain is expected in from Saturday afternoon through parts of Sunday.