Official Says California Storm Costs $1 Billion

(AP) - The Latest on the mounting costs to repair California's battered roads following a series of winter storms (all times local):

2 p.m.

California Gov. Jerry Brown's chief budget adviser says state costs for responding to a winter of brutal storms will likely exceed $1 billion.

Department of Finance Director Michael Cohen said Friday that clearing mudslides and fixing storm-related damage to state highways so far this year will cost California $595 million.

He says there will be several hundred million dollars more for evacuations and non-highway damage, as well as emergency repairs to the damaged spillways at Lake Oroville. He says those costs haven't been precisely tallied.

Cohen says the federal government will cover much of the cost for damage and emergency response.

President Donald Trump's administration has approved federal assistance in response to storms and the damage at Oroville Dam.

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11:10 a.m.

The costs are mounting to repair California's battered roads following a series of winter storms.

Caltrans spokeswoman Vanessa Wiseman says the latest damage estimates as of Friday put the costs at nearly $600 million.

Record storms throughout California have washed out roads and buried others in rockslides.

Wiseman says the price tag from just two stormy months more than doubles the state's budget for emergency road repairs.

Kelly Huston of the California Office of Emergency Services says crews are still busy making repairs to other infrastructure and won't be able to tally the total costs in storm damage until the state has dried out.

Local communities are also spending millions they don't have.

Butte County public works director Dennis Schmidt says he's blown through the county's $1 million emergency fund.