📍 Acampo, CALIFORNIA
The start of the year brought three weeks of storms, flooding, and landslides that prompted evacuations in communities across the Golden State. Fellows with the CatchLight Local California Visual Desk were among the first on the scenes to photograph the aftermath of these extreme weather events.
📍 STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA
“An atmospheric river blew through the Bay Area…leaving tens of thousands of people without power, damaging coastal piers and leading to flooding, downed trees and other problems around the region.” (Local News Matters)
📍 Planada, CALIFORNIA
“Atmospheric rivers channel moist tropical air towards the West Coast, where mountains condense it to rain and snow. Over the last few weeks, California has suffered through a sneak peak of its devastating potential. […] Californians have spent billions of dollars to prepare for earthquakes and catastrophic wildfires. … But Californians have largely forgotten the death tolls and huge property losses of previous deadly floods, and even larger floods are likely to come.” (CalMatters)
📍 Tracy, CALIFORNIA
“According to the National Weather Service, December 2022 was Stockton’s wettest December on record, with a rainfall of 8.5 inches. The rain led to several fallen trees, heavily flooded roadways and San Joaquin County officials declaring a local state of emergency.” (Local News Matters)
📍 Stockton, CALIFORNIA
“On a gloomy Thursday morning, Community Medical Centers and members of other San Joaquin County outreach programs walked through muddy puddles and rain to provide services for unhoused residents in Stockton faced with hazardous weather conditions.” (Local News Matters)
📍 Berkeley, CALIFORNIA
“‘It’s kind of a physical manifestation of what anxiety is like,’ said Sari Cooper, who has lived two doors up from the Plotners on Alvarado Road since 1999. ‘There’s always this thing hanging over our heads.’ … Building homes on sharp slopes is known to exacerbate landslide risk — and it gets worse when water is added to soil.” (Berkeleyside)