CALIFORNIA STILL AWASH IN TROUBLE.

Byline: Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

The rains finally relented Friday, but floods that continued to drench a 110-mile swath of the Central Valley from Olivehurst to Modesto sent more than 100,000 people fleeing for higher ground.

Levees crumbled and raging rivers killed at least three people, devastated hundreds of homes, closed dozens of roads and highways and spawned searing images of heartbreak.

``Right now, I just don't know whether to get sick or cry. It's just everything we worked for all our lives,'' said Steve Danna, a 55-year-old Olivehurst man whose family farming business was under 16 feet of water.

It was like that throughout much of the state Friday. Thirty-seven of California's 58 counties were operating under states of emergency, and disaster workers were straining to handle the largest displacement of residents in years.

``We were trying to compare this with the Loma Prieta Earthquake,'' said national Red Cross spokeswoman Elizabeth Quirk. ``This is even larger than that.''

There were some bright spots as sunny skies dominated after a week of heavy rainfall, and residents of the south Sacramento County community of Wilton were allowed to return to their homes after being driven out by heavy flooding Thursday from the Cosumnes River.

Sally Zagala and her three daughters fled their Wilton home at 11 a.m. Thursday after hearing mandatory evacuation orders on television news reports.

``They took us out by boat, onto a fire truck to a fire station, then onto a military truck, then in a sheriff's vehicle to Circle K at the end of Wilton Road,'' Zagala said.

The Zagalas eventually made it to a friend's house in Elk Grove. When they returned Friday they waded through knee-deep water in the driveway to check on their house.

``The driveway is a mess, but the house is dry,'' the mother said. ``The dog and cat are fine. There's a little bit of water in the car.''

The toll from flooding in Sacramento County was estimated at $7 million. Officials said water damaged at least 310 houses, 35 mobile homes, four businesses, three government offices and two bridges.

Officials in Sacramento said they were drastically reducing water releases Friday out of Folsom Dam to help lower the threat of flooding along the American and Sacramento rivers in the urban area of the capital city.

Officials had no estimates Friday of the damage statewide, but floods still were occurring in many areas throughout the Central Valley. The damage totals in some counties were certain to increase before the floods of 1997 finally recede.

Forecasters predicted Friday that the rains may be gone for the next week. In their place officials were hoping for unusually cold, dry weather.

But a break in the stormy weather was coming too late for many.

By late Friday, thousands were being evacuated, including hundreds in the Delta town of Franklin and 3,000 in Modesto, where the Tuolumne River was rising rapidly and was expected to crest late Friday.

Residents in Sutter County near the Bear River also were being evacuated as flood-control officials breached a levee along the Feather River to prevent flooding from swamping Sacramento International Airport 15 miles south.

In Fresno, residents were bracing for two hits from water releases through Friant Dam. A mobile-home park directly in the path of the waters was expected to be swamped, and officials said the Highway 41 bridge was in danger.

In Kyburz along Highway 50, where slides had closed the road, about 60 people were airlifted out because of concerns of flooding from the South Fork of the American River.

And in Yosemite National Park, six helicopters evacuated some of the 2,200 people who had been trapped for days by closed roads.

Given the scope of the disaster, there appeared to be remarkably few deaths or injuries, with officials pinpointing three flood-related deaths by Friday night but concerned the toll could rise.

Complaints about a lack of warning from officials were common Friday as frustrated homeowners sought to understand their predicament.

But many were simply thankful that they had survived.

Across the submerged region, heroic rescues were the norm as helicopters plucked people and pets from rooftops and boats ferried others from trees, islands and the tops of sunken vehicles.

``Today was not a good day for us,'' Marilyn Graham said after she and her husband, Don, were lifted from the second-story roof of their flooded Olivehurst home Friday into a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. ``But we are alive.''

The Yuba County area around Olivehurst bore the brunt of the flooding, with about 80,000 people evacuated from that area alone.

That flooding began about 8:30 p.m. Thursday as a crew was checking a problem on a levee along the Feather River and ``all of a sudden there was a catastrophic break of the levee,'' said Chuck Woolsey of the state Department of Water Resources.

``There was a guy on the levee and he fell into the break, but they managed to save him,'' Woolsey said.

By Friday, the breach was 800 feet long and the Feather River waters had flooded miles of rural farms and ranches. From the air, the tops of two- and three-story homes could be seen poking through the brown, muddy waters, and occasionally dogs could be seen sitting forlornly on roofs waiting for rescue.

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Photo

Photo: The crew of a Coast Guard helicopter rescues a Central Valley man from the roof of his Olivehurst home.

Associated Press