'Hard to see': Santa Cruz cleans up after fierce storm

STORY: "It's a lot to take in," King said. "It's really hard to see it kind of in the state that it's in, right? Like, you just think back to all the memories you've had in there and and just kind of looking at it now."

High surf and runoff from heavy rains combined to flood several blocks in Santa Cruz, and heavy waves tore up wooden piers in the adjacent town of Capitola and nearby Seacliff State Beach.

Farther north, pounding waves broke through the rear doors of the historic Point Cabrillo lighthouse in Mendocino County, flooding its ground-floor museum, the Mendocino Voice newspaper reported.

The two-day storm, which ended Thursday (January 5) night, was powered by an immense atmospheric stream of moisture from the tropical Pacific and a sprawling, hurricane-scale, low-pressure system known as a bomb cyclone.