Rain moves on; rivers still rage in battered California

The sun peeked out Wednesday in Northern California, but thousands of weary residents still faced threats from raging rivers and bloated reservoirs that forced daring rescues and evacuations.

In San Jose, mandatory evacuation orders forced 14,000 people from their homes in neighborhoods in a 100-year flood zone. Hip-high waters swamped some communities.

"The city is sending in teams to assess damage and determine when it is safe for residents to return to their homes," Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a statement.

The National Weather Service warned that rivers will continue to run high through week's end. Hundreds of people required boat rescue Tuesday after the Anderson Reservoir overflowed into Coyote Creek, a river that normally rolls quietly through the Santa Clara Valley. Sewage, garbage and engine fuel tainted the floodwaters, and those rescued were taken to a decontamination area and hosed down, San Jose Fire Capt. Mitch Matlow said.

Resident Sandy Moll told the The Mercury News she was angered that officials provided no advance warning. Liccardo acknowledged a communication failure and said the breakdown would be reviewed "in the days ahead."

“My furniture is floating in the garden,” Moll told the newspaper. “I'm seething. It’s the lack of information and forewarning when they had to have known.”

Storms hammered parts of Southern California with almost a foot of rain late last week before roaring into Northern California on Monday and Tuesday. The region's waterways, saturated by weeks of downpours, were overwhelmed. The drought that lingered over the state for five years has become a distant memory in all but a few areas of the state.

More rain is coming. Weather Service meteorologist Bob Oravec said ​heavy rains will roll into much of Northern and Central California sometime Saturday. That storm system could hang around until Monday.

Justin Jacobs, spokesman for Union Pacific railroad, said the weeks of bad weather washed out bridges and covered tracks with mudslide debris.

"Right now the big thing is that we are able to reroute trains around the areas that are out of service," he said. "We have delays, but we are looking to get all the lines open as soon as possible. Safety first."

In San Jose, swirling water and dramatic rescues

Rivers in the sky causing widespread chaos in California

Battered Northern California blasted by new storm

The storms even battered portions of Nevada. The weather service issued a flash flood warning for Dayton, Nev., on Tuesday, where authorities feared a dam might break and send 2 to 4 feet of water into low-lying areas.

"A storm water retention basin located southwest of Dayton Valley Road is full and overflowing into drainages," Lyon County Manager Jeffrey Page said.

Some good news came from Lake Oroville: The water level there was expected to begin dropping. Authorities ordered an emergency evacuation more than a week ago when a spillway threatened to crumble.

Contributing: Associated Press