The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors has ratified the proclamation of a local emergency that will allow them to seek state assistance to fund repairs to more than $3 million in damage caused by an “atmospheric river” storm earlier this month.

The Dec. 13 storm caused an estimated $3.13 million in damage to county roads and other infrastructure.

Santa Cruz County will now be able to seek disaster assistance funding under the California Disaster Assistance Act following the Board of Supervisors’ unanimous vote at a special meeting Tuesday.

Dave Reid, director of the county’s Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience, said the loss of part of Lodge Road in Boulder Creek, within the burn scar from the CZU Lightning Complex wildfires last year, was “one of the more significant failures” that resulted from the Dec. 13 storm.

Other locations with damage were on Granite Creek Road, Valencia Road, Casserly Road, Highland Way and Two Bar Road. Reid showed the supervisors video footage of a debris flow along Foreman Creek where several homes were evacuated during the storm.

Supervisor Bruce McPherson and others thanked public works crews with the county for quickly clearing and fixing affected roads.

Dan McMenamin is the managing editor at Bay City News, directing daily news coverage of the 12-county greater Bay Area. He has worked for BCN since 2008 and has been managing editor since 2014 after previously serving as BCN’s San Francisco bureau reporter. A UC Davis graduate, he came to BCN after working for a newspaper and nonprofit in the Davis area. He handles staffing, including coaching of our interns, day-to-day coverage decisions and management of the newswire.