Bay Area Rainfall Topped Out At 50 Inches; Big Sur At 85 Inches

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA — The relentless storms that battered California from the day after Christmas through Monday killed at least 20 people and caused billions of dollars worth of destruction to public and private property, damage that in some cases will take months or years to repair.

Tallying the damage will take time, but the number of homes and other structures that will be red-tagged as uninhabitable could be in the "low thousands," said Brian Ferguson, spokesperson for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

The amount of rain and snow released by the atmospheric rivers and bomb cyclones is staggering. One Bay Area location received almost 50 inches of rain, while dozens of spots got more than 20 inches.

The amount of water in the snowpack covering the Sierra Nevada and other mountain ranges is more than 250 percent of normal to date and 124 percent of the April 1 average, when the pack is normally at its peak, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

Locally, reservoirs got a huge infusion of water with several now full, and some have begun sending water over their spillways.

President Joe Biden plans to visit the central coast on Thursday to inspect the storm devastation. The White House said in a statement Monday that the president would meet first responders and state and local officials, survey recovery efforts and assess what additional federal support is needed.

The Bay Area News Group compiled rainfall totals for Dec. 1 to Jan. 16. Mining Ridge in Big Sur has recorded 84.16 inches. Here is a sampling of readings closer to home —

Santa Cruz Mountains

• Uvas Canyon 49.17
• Loma Prieta 44.74
• Mount Umunhum 44.02
• Boulder Creek 43.9
• Ben Lomond landfill 42.78
• Hwy. 17 summit 42.43
• Lexington Reservoir 37.79
• Mount Madonna 32.95
• Coast Dairies 31.58

Peninsula & South Bay

• Uvas Reservoir 33.11
• Saratoga (Hwy 9/Pierce) 31.13
• Foothills Preserve 30.98
• Huddart Park 28.6
• Windy Hill 28.47
• Mount Hamilton 28
• Calero Reservoir 24.2
• Anderson Dam 22.8
• San Francisco (Duboce) 20.69

East Bay

• Skyline/Redwood 27.52
• Castro Valley 26.42
• Danville 24.39
• St. Mary’s College 23.94
• Dublin/San Ramon 23.8
• Marsh Creek 23.55
• Tassajara 22.46

The Associated Press contributed to this article.