Hundreds evacuated after California levee breached by flooding

A Northern California agricultural community famous for its strawberry crop was forced to evacuate early Saturday after the Pajaro River's levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river that pummeled the state.

Across Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday, including roughly 1,700 residents — many of them Latino farmworkers — from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.

In a news conference Saturday afternoon, Lew Bauman with the Monterey County Water Resources Agency said the levee breached at about midnight Friday. Bowman said the breach was about 120 feet long.