Highway 99 closed in Sacramento County after New Year’s Eve storm

Update: Caltrans announced just after midnight on Monday, Jan. 2 that Highway 99 had reopened.

The following story published on Jan. 1.

Motorists should avoid traveling Sunday on Highway 99 in Sacramento County after heavy New Year’s rains caused flooding on the roadway and the surrounding area.

The highway is closed from Twin Cities Road to Mingo Road with no estimated time of reopening, Caltrans officials said.

“There’s not much we can do with until Cosumnes comes down on its own,” Caltrans District 3 spokesman Steve Nelson said. “It’s looking like a long-term closure.”

Motorists were told to “avoid traveling anywhere near the surrounding areas of Wilton, Herald and outlying region of Galt,” California Highway Patrol said in a Sunday morning tweet.

Flooding on the Cosumnes River triggered a closure of Highway 99 near Dillard Road around midnight, prompting authorities to rescue as many as four dozen motorists from disabled vehicles a mile south of Elk Grove through the morning hours.

The area is also under a flash flood warning that was extended following two levee breaches in the Wilton area. On Saturday night, weather service and county officials urged residents in the area of Wilton and Cosumnes roads to seek higher ground after a levee was overtopped and breached near Cecetra Drive. On Sunday morning, Sacramento County officials confirmed a second levee break near Freeman Road and Dillard Road.

The area is about 3 miles upstream from the flooding on Highway 99.

Weather service forecasters said the Cosumnes River at McConnell, where the river crosses the highway, crested at 46.6 feet, below the record high water mark of 48.5 feet set during the New Year’s storms of 1997. By 11 a.m., the river had fallen to 27.93 feet, according to the weather service.

This story was originally published January 1, 2023 at 10:53 AM with the headline "Highway 99 closed in Sacramento County after New Year’s Eve storm."