SACRAMENTO, Calif. — UPDATE 10:30 p.m.
Flood Warning continues through Friday afternoon for Cache Creek. It is already at flood stage and won't drop below that level until tomorrow morning.
Flood Warning also continues in the valley through Friday evening due to high rises on creeks and small streams. Also expect water ponding on the roads.
More rain is moving through the valley tonight and will continue into early Friday morning. Lighter showers through the day but there's a chance of thunderstorms and isolated heavy rain.
Snow is picking up in the Sierra and a Winter Storm Warning will stay in effect with one to six feet of snow possible by Sunday afternoon.
UPDATE 6:00 p.m.
A brief break from the heavy rain is giving creeks, streams, rivers and storm drains time to move through all the rain that has fallen over the past two days.
Some valley locations saw over three inches of rain in the past two days.
More rain and snow on the way as a storm moves into California Friday through Sunday. This will be a colder storm and won't hold as much water, helping alleviate all the water concerns.
The valley will see an additional 0.50-1.25 inches of rain by Sunday. Most of the rain will fall through Friday afternoon with only light showers Saturday and Sunday.
More snow is expected for the Sierra with difficult travel and chain controls likely through the weekend. Snow levels will be lowering to near 2500 feet Friday and drop as low as 1500 feet by Sunday morning.
Waves of heavy rain pounded California on Thursday, flooding streets, triggering a mudslide that destroyed homes and forcing residents to flee communities scorched by wildfires last year.
More than 30,000 remain without electricity in Shasta County, where some communities have received more than a foot of snow in the last 24 hours. Officials in Redding opened a warming center at the city's library.
A flooded creek led authorities to urge about 300 residents to leave a Northern California community some 20 miles west of Paradise, a town destroyed last year by the nation's deadliest wildfire in a century. An evacuation order was issued in Butte County for the Nord Community due to flooding of Rock Creek. A small breach was confirmed in the Rock Creek levee in the area of Wilson Landing Road at Hamilton Nord Cana Highway.
A state of emergency was declared in Shasta County because of significant storm damage, and thousands of customers lost power. It comes after a fire in the county seat of Redding last summer destroyed more than 1,000 homes and killed eight people.
Paul Moreno, a spokesman with Pacific Gas & Pacific Gas, says 28,000 of their customers remain without power in Shasta County. Another 6,000 customers of Redding Electric Utility have been without power since Wednesday morning.
A home slid down a hill in Sausalito, north of San Francisco, and a woman was rescued from the wreckage. At least 50 homes were evacuated after the mudslide struck a neighborhood, KNTV reported.
The storm delayed flights destined for San Francisco International Airport, closed scenic Highway 1 in at least four spots on the Central Coast and shut down U.S. 395 in the snowy eastern Sierra Nevada.
Nearly 37 percent of California had no level of drought or abnormal dryness, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday. About 10.5 percent of the state was in moderate drought, just over 1.6 percent was in severe drought. The remainder was in the abnormally dry category. The numbers reflect data gathered up to Tuesday.
Atmospheric rivers are long bands of water vapor that form over an ocean and flow through the sky. Formed by winds associated with storms, they occur globally but are especially significant on the West Coast. When an atmospheric river originates near Hawaii it is commonly referred to as a "Pineapple Express."
PHOTOS: Heavy rain, strong winds bear down on Sacramento
The National Weather Service recorded winds gusting to 132 mph atop the Mount Rose ski resort southwest of Reno, Nevada. A backcountry avalanche warning was issued throughout the Sierra.
Five passengers suffered minor injuries when a Delta Air Lines flight headed from Southern California to Seattle encountered severe turbulence in the storm and was forced to make an emergency landing in Reno. Photos on social media showed a drinks cart upended and snacks and soda cans littering the aisle. One passenger tweeted the plane did two nose dives in "crazy turbulence" but the crew "handled it perfectly."
RELATED: Sacramento Local Forecast
Tim Suber said he has lost count of how many times his hillside neighborhood in Lake Elsinore has been evacuated between last summer's devastating wildfire and this winter's succession of storms.
"I'm not going this time," Suber said Wednesday after authorities warned him that he could end up trapped if roads flood. "I've got 35 chickens and a daughter who won't leave them behind. So we're staying."
AP writers Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco, Christopher Weber, John Rogers and Amanda Lee Myers in Los Angeles, Chris Grygiel in Seattle and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
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