Rescuers chest-deep in water are steering boats full of people, some with babies and pets, from a San Jose neighbourhood inundated by water from an overflowing creek.

Key points: San Jose has no emergency warning system forcing firefighters to door knock with evacuation message

San Jose has no emergency warning system forcing firefighters to door knock with evacuation message A stretch of Highway 50, one of the main routes to Lake Tahoe, in danger of collapsing

A stretch of Highway 50, one of the main routes to Lake Tahoe, in danger of collapsing Water levels rising at Lake Oroville again where a damaged spillway has caused major flooding concerns

At least 225 residents were taken to dry land and rinsed with soap and water to prevent them from being sickened by floodwaters that had travelled through engine fuel, garbage, debris and over sewer lines, San Jose Fire Captain Mitch Matlow said.

Rescuers went door-to-door searching for people who needed to leave the neighbourhood and only residents who could prove they had been cleaned of the floodwaters were allowed to board buses to shelters.

The city does not have sirens or another emergency warning system, San Jose spokesman David Vossbrink said.

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"This is like once-in-a-lifetime," Bobby Lee, 15, said of the water around him.

He was rescued with his brother and parents, who took clothes, electronics and some photos from their home in a neighbourhood that ended up littered with submerged cars.

Earlier Tuesday, firefighters rescued five people stranded by flooding at a homeless camp along the same creek in San Jose.

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The rains were the latest produced by a series of storms generated by so-called atmospheric rivers that dump massive quantities of Pacific Ocean water on California after carrying it aloft from as far away as Hawaii.

The latest downpours swelled waterways and left about half the state under flood, wind and snow advisories.

In the Sierra Nevada mountain range, part of Highway 50, one of the main routes to Lake Tahoe, was in danger of collapsing after a roadway shoulder gave way following heavy storms, leaving a gaping hole about 40 feet long and 17 feet wide, Caltrans engineer Jarrett Woodruff said.

Map Areas of acute concern in California floods

In the San Joaquin Valley in California's agricultural heartland, farmers used their tractors and other heavy equipment to help shore up an endangered levee along the San Joaquin River.

Some farmers took their tractors and other equipment to the levee to help shore it up, arriving to fill a big breach within half an hour of noticing the break, said alfalfa farmer Tony Coit.

"The farmers ran it like a boss," he said, using soil from the levee itself to fill in the 30-foot-wide break until they could truck in large rocks for more substantial repairs.

The water level rose at Lake Oroville for the first time since authorities ordered an emergency evacuation of 188,000 people more than a week ago after a damaged spillway caused major flooding concerns.

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The rains have saturated the once-drought stricken region and wreaked havoc for residents hit hard by the storms.

At least four people have died in the wild weather throughout the state in the last week.

AP