‘Worst is over,’ Elk Grove officials say, after Sunday’s record-breaking storm moves on

The worst is over, Elk Grove officials said Monday, after Sunday’s record-breaking deluge dumped more than 5 inches of rain in 24 hours, scrambling busy work crews, triggering localized flooding and straining the city’s drainage systems.

Elk Grove was hit with nearly 8.5 inches of rain over a 72-hour period.

The 8.38 inches stood as Sacramento County’s highest total, the National Weather Service reported just before 11 a.m. Monday.

Elk Grove roads overrun by Sunday’s storm have since reopened as waters began to recede Monday, but eyes were on high-running creeks and canals.

“While most of the city’s drainage systems worked as they were designed to, the sheer amount of rainfall meant that most systems were operating at capacity,” Elk Grove officials said Monday in the city’s online storm report to residents.

The atmospheric river event that pounded a wide swath of Northern California well into late Sunday dropped 5.12 inches of rain on Elk Grove over a 24-hour span, officials say.

The city’s public works hotline answered more than 550 calls for service for localized flooding as crews worked throughout the day cleaning out clogged storm drains and rushing to flooded streets and neighborhoods.

Cosumnes Fire Department officials earlier Monday said they received reports of isolated localized flooding on Sunday, but said low-lying, flood-prone communities outside Elk Grove including the town of Franklin and Point Pleasant, escaped Sunday’s storms largely unscathed.