GUERNEVILLE, Calif. (AP) – Northern California got a respite Monday from the pouring rain that flooded towns and sent sodden hillsides sliding across highways as the focus of a series of storms shifted to Central and Southern California.

The break in the weather meant residents of Guerneville and other towns were able to focus Monday on cleaning up the mud and debris left by the weekend flooding caused by a pair of storms, although streams remained above flood stage.

The Russian River at Guerneville had begun to recede after remaining for hours at 41 feet – 9 feet about flood stage – but officials said it likely wouldn’t fall all the way below flood stage until Tuesday morning.

Elsewhere, rain fell from the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles on Monday morning, drenching the route of the Rose Bowl parade. Rain intensified and the wind kicked up as the parade started, bending umbrellas and whipping rain slickers.

Southern California authorities said there were no reports of flooding or mudslides in areas where last summer’s wildfires stripped vegetation from hills.

However, heavy rain was forecast throughout the day, with totals of up to 4 inches in the coastal valleys and 6 inches in the mountains, said Jamie Smith, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Oxnard.

At least two deaths were blamed on the storm, both of them caused by falling trees, authorities said.

Streets in the Marin County town of San Anselmo, north of San Francisco, were coated with mud as residents began drying out their flooded homes and business owners sorted through mounds of water-damaged merchandise.

“We got hit very hard. It’s all pretty soggy and muddy up here,” town administrator Debbie Stutsman said.

About 50 downtown businesses were flooded by about 4 feet of water, Stutsman said. Two people rescued from the rising water there were hospitalized with hypothermia.

Initial assessments put the property damage at about $10 million.

Water also receded in the heart of wine country along the Napa River, which reached 5 feet above flood stage at the town of Napa and inundated several downtown blocks.

About 1,000 homes and an unknown number of businesses were flooded, Napa officials estimated. A layer of mud and debris coated city streets but most flooded roads had been reopened by Monday.

Saturday’s storm had dumped an average of 4 to 5 inches in Northern California, with parts of Napa County getting up to 9 inches in less than 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service.

The California Army National Guard sent all-terrain vehicles through Guerneville on Sunday to pick up residents stranded in their homes by high water.

“We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to get out,” said Dan Aljoe, 59, who came up to Guerneville from Alameda with friends to ring in the New Year. “These guys were marvelous to pick us up.”

The storms’ strong wind and heavy rain also threatened levees. Water splashed over the top of one levee in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and officials evacuated up to 100 residents from Twitchell Island.

In Solano County, an evacuation was ordered for about 15 homes in Collinsville after a levee began leaking along the Sacramento River. Crews hoped the weather would let them begin repairs Monday, said Paula Toynbee, spokeswoman for the Solano County Sheriff’s Department.

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Associated Press writer Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report.

AP-ES-01-02-06 1119EST

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