Rising floodwaters in San Jose force mandatory evacuations

Neighbors talk in front of their homes, which were inundated after Coyote Creek overflowed.

Ricardo Juarez, who has lived in this house for six years, works to free his van Wednesday after floodwaters pushed it from its parking spot on 20th Street near Coyote Creek.

Homes and cars in San Jose are swamped by flooding on Feb. 22.  (Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images)

Floodwaters surround a play structure in San Jose.

Cars are covered by floodwater on Wednesday. The Coyote Creek crested to 13.6 feet at a river gauge point on Tuesday evening in South San Jose — nearly four feet above flood stage, officials said.

On Tuesday, rescuers in chest-deep water steer boats carrying dozens of people, some with babies and pets, from a San Jose neighborhood inundated by water from an overflowing creek.

A man peers out from the front door of a flooded apartment complex in San Jose.

A woman is directed to a safe zone after being rescued by boat from a flooded neighborhood in San Jose.

Rescuers travel by boat through a flooded neighborhood looking for stranded residents in San Jose.

An abandoned car is submerged on a flooded roadway in San Jose, where rains have saturated once drought-stricken California.

Cars are submerged in a flooded neighborhood in San Jose.

Rescue crews escort residents from a flooded neighborhood in San Jose.

A sign is submerged in the water from Coyote Creek in Morgan Hill. The latest downpours have swelled waterways to flood levels and left about half of California under flood, wind and snow advisories.

Ken Okenquist, right, and his grandson, Keaton Davis, 11, watch the flooding caused by Coyote Creek in Morgan Hill.