Tag Archives: Natural disasters

World

Iran earthquake kills 2, injures hundreds

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CNN
 — 

At least two people were killed, and more than 500 injured when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iran on Saturday night local time.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the earthquake hit the city of Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, in northwest Iran, around 9:44 p.m. local time, citing the Iranian Seismological Center in Tehran.

At least 580 people were injured and 70 villages damaged, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported. It said that relief and damage assessment operations are underway.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) also registered the quake as 5.9 magnitude.

“The tremor was so strong that it was felt in many regions of West Azerbaijan Province, causing concern among residents. It was also felt in several cities, including the provincial capital of Tabriz in the neighboring province of East Azerbaijan,” IRNA reported.

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Drivers stranded and damage reported after possible tornado in Houston area

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CNN
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Emergency responders in the Houston area say they are responding to reports of damage and stranded motorists after a possible tornado moved through the area Tuesday.

Structural damage from a tornado in Pasadena, about 15 miles southeast of Houston, is “catastrophic,” according to the local police chief.

“In my 25 years here, this is probably the worst damage I’ve seen,” Chief Josh Bruegger told reporters outside a damaged animal shelter in the city, where two dogs were injured.

Only one person had been reported injured so far in the city, Mayor Jeff Wagner said, but “we’ve seen plenty of damage. We’ve seen buildings that have collapsed.”

The police chief said cleanup will require extensive work. “For the coming days, we’re going to have our hands full,” he said.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department was “responding to a high number of stranded motorists,” Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted. The department had prepared its high-water rescue vehicles ahead of the storm, he said.

There were reports of “several commercial trucks overturned” near Beltway 8, the beltway around the city of Houston, the Pasadena Police Department tweeted, and some power lines were reported to be down.

“Our officers and Fire Department are working towards assisting those people with who were immediately affected,” the department tweeted.

More than 113,000 electric customers were without power in Texas Tuesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

In Deer Park, just to the northeast of Pasadena, a nursing home sustained structural damage, and about 59 residents were being evacuated, Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton told CNN.

An ambulance bus that was capable of carrying up to two dozen patients was dispatched to the scene as a precaution, according to Jerry Dilliard with the Atascocita Fire Department, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

A tornado emergency was declared earlier Tuesday for the southeastern metro area of Houston where “a confirmed large and destructive tornado was observed over northwestern Pasadena, moving northeast at 60 mph,” according to the National Weather Service in Houston.

Other locations in the path of this tornado included Deer Park, Baytown, Highlands and Channelview, according to the weather service.



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Another atmospheric river lashes California, renewing flooding concerns in state where storms have left at least 19 dead

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CNN
 — 

Another atmospheric river has arrived in storm-battered California, bringing renewed flooding fears, possible landslides and treacherous travel to the state Monday where a relentless string of storms has already delivered widespread damage and left at least 19 dead in recent weeks.

“We have lost too much – too many people to these storms and in these waters,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Saturday, urging residents to prepare for another round of rain.

The latest storm is set to bring heavy mountain snow and periods of heavy rain, with an additional 1 to 3 inches of rainfall expected in areas already too saturated to absorb more water.

Flood watches remain in place for around 8 million people in coastal California, including the Bay Area, until Monday afternoon. A slight risk – level 2 out of 4 – for excessive rain and flooding covers a large chunk of Southern California, including the Los Angeles metro area, until Monday morning then drops to a marginal risk through the day.

Meanwhile, winter storm warnings are posted for the Sierra Nevada where up to 3 feet of new snow could fall through Monday.

Residents of Ventura County’s remote Matilija Canyon were being urged Sunday to leave their homes after more than 17 inches of high-intensity rainfall resulted in significant damage and left towering piles of rock and mud over 40-feet tall blocking some roadways, isolating residents, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said, adding that more than ten helicopter flights have carried more than 70 residents from the area.

To the north in San Joaquin County, around 175 residents were voluntarily evacuated from a mobile home park Sunday, including by boat, after flood waters inundated the community, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

Evacuation warnings were also in place Sunday evening for residents near the Carmel River in Monterey County, on California’s Central Coast. A warning was also in place for residents in Sacramento County’s Wilton area.

“People are fatigued about evacuation orders. People are fatigued by seeing those Caltrans turn signs saying ‘detour’ – they’re just fatigued generally,” Newsom said in a news conference Saturday.

The parade of atmospheric rivers – long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that can carry moisture thousands of miles – turned California communities into lakes, crippled highways and prompted thousands of evacuations.

The good news? A much-needed stretch of dry weather is on the way.

“As we push into the day on Tuesday we’re looking for quieter weather across much of the state with one fast moving additional system arriving for later Wednesday into early Thursday. After that, looking for a period of dry weather for much of the state finally as we head into late week, and pretty much through the weekend,” a National Weather Service spokesman said.

Monday will see the latest round of rain slowly come to an end from Northern California in the early afternoon hours to Southern California later in the day.

But for now, the state is bracing for more flooding, mudslides and rescues. Swift water resources and firefighters have been positioned statewide in preparation for Monday, which could see this round’s heaviest rainfall, state officials said.

Wind gusts reached hurricane-force Sunday across the higher elevations of Southern California, where around 14 million people were under wind advisories into Monday.

And as the latest storm approached, President Joe Biden on Saturday approved California’s request for a disaster declaration, freeing up federal aid to supplement recovery efforts in areas of the state affected by storms, flooding and mudslides since December 27.

The federal assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, loans to help cover property losses for uninsured homes, according to the White House.

Some isolated higher rain rates of 0.5 inches per hour could lead to a couple instances of flooding, especially given the very wet conditions as atmospheric rivers hammered the state in previous weeks.

Though this weekend’s rainfall totals will be lower than in previous storms, the threshold for flooding is much lower now because the ground is too saturated and conditions are ripe for mudslides and landslides.

There have been 402 landslides recorded statewide since December 30, according to the California Geological Survey.

Rainfall totals in recent weeks have been immense. Already, San Francisco has recorded one of its top 15 wettest winters on record. The Bay Area could see another 1-2 inches by Monday afternoon and the wettest peaks can see up to 3 inches.

To the south, the Los Angeles area saw several locations set daily rainfall records with 1 to 2 inches received Saturday. Southern California may still see isolated areas where heavy rainfall could reach up to a half an inch per hour in the heaviest storms.

Some areas of Santa Cruz County have seen more than 34 inches of rain since December 26, according to county recovery official. If this is to be confirmed by the weather service, it would land Santa Cruz in the top five wettest winters on record – with still a month left to the season.

“We’re getting flooding in our coastal streams, creeks, and rivers,” Santa Cruz County official David Reid said. “And we’re getting extensive landslides and mudslides and road failures in our mountainous areas.”

“There’s definitely a fatigue that happens with the continued storms – folks begin to fear that what we’re telling them isn’t true, but we have real concerns,” Reid added.

The need for residents to follow evacuation orders and adhere to roadway closures is real. Crews around the state have for weeks responded to rescues on flooded streets and inundated neighborhoods.

Storm-related deaths in recent weeks have included a woman whose body was found inside a vehicle that washed into a flooded vineyard, two people who were found with trees on top of their tents, a child who was killed when a redwood tree fell on a home, and several other fatalities.

And in San Luis Obispo County, rescuers are still searching for 5-year-old Kyle Doan, who was pulled from his mother’s hands by rushing floodwater on Monday after their SUV was swept away.

Rains on Saturday hampered the search as water levels rose in the San Marcos Creek and Salinas River, but crews were back out searching for the boy on Sunday as conditions improved, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said.

As lower elevations deal with heavy rainfall, and potential floods and mudslides, those living on higher elevations can expect heavy snowfall and dangerous conditions on the road.

Up to 3 feet of new snow could fall through Monday in Sierra Nevada while mountains in Southern California could see several inches of snow by early Tuesday morning.

Flagstaff, Arizona, saw 14.8 inches on Sunday, shattering a previous record of 8.9 inches set back in 1978.

“Heavy mountain snow and strong winds will lead to blowing snow and whiteout conditions at times, creating dangerous to near impossible travel above 4,000 ft in the mountains and passes of Central California and above 5,000 ft for Southern California,” the National Weather Service said.

Snow could hammer the mountains at a rate of 2 inches per hour at times into Monday morning in the Sierra Nevada, the weather service added.

For Tuesday, the rain and snow will move into the Four Corners Region, but isolated showers and snow showers could still impact parts of Southern California Tuesday morning.

Lower elevations in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico can see 1-4 inches of snowfall and the higher elevations can see 1-2 feet.



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More rain is on the way for storm-battered California, where storms have flooded communities and left 19 dead

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CNN
 — 

Storm-battered California – still reeling from weeks of deadly flooding, mudslides and rescues – is being hit with more rainfall over the weekend.

An unrelenting string of atmospheric rivers – long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that can carry moisture thousands of miles – have turned communities into lakes, crippled highways and prompted thousands of evacuations, including earlier this week. At least 19 people have died as a result of the storms.

Two more are pummeling the state this weekend.

“This isn’t over; we must remain vigilant. Stay safe, make the necessary preparations, and limit non-essential travel,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “Floods, landslides, and storms don’t care who you are or where you live – it’ll hit you just the same. We have lost too much – too many people to these storms and in these waters.”

More than 8 million people were under flood watches Saturday night across much of California’s central coastline, as well as the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.

A marginal risk of excessive rainfall is in place along the California coast from San Francisco down through San Diego, as well as the mountain ranges of southern California, where up to 2 inches of additional rainfall could lead to flooding and mudslides, the National Weather Service said.

Residents in Monterey County, on California’s Central Coast, were ordered to evacuate low-lying areas of the Carmel River Saturday afternoon. Sacramento County officials ordered residents of the Wilton area to flee – once again – due to an anticipated rise in the Cosumnes River.

“People are fatigued about evacuation orders. People are fatigued by seeing those Caltrans signs saying ‘detour’ – they’re just fatigued generally,” Newsom said, speaking from a flood evacuation shelter at the Merced County Fairgrounds.

President Joe Biden on Saturday approved California’s request for a disaster declaration, freeing up federal aid to supplement recovery efforts in areas of the state affected by storms, flooding and mudslides since December 27, the White House said.

“This federal aid is key to recovery efforts so Californians can get back on their feet faster,” Newsom said in a tweet thanking Biden for approving the declaration.

The first system of the weekend arrived at California’s coast Saturday afternoon and was expected to move inland, bringing heavy rain across the state “as another surge of Pacific moisture streams ahead of the main cold front,” the National Weather Service said.

Lighter rainfall is expected to continue Sunday morning, before another “ramp-up” late Sunday into early Monday ahead of a second system, the weather service said.

The new round of heavy rainfall comes after numerous areas already saw 50% to 70% of the amount of precipitation that they would usually get in a whole year in 16 days.

San Francisco has recorded one of its top 15 wettest winters on record.

Newsom said it was just weeks ago that authorities in Southern California extended a drought emergency to millions of residents. Now, the state is inundated with rain.

“By some estimates 22 to 25 trillion gallons of water have fallen over the course last 16-17 days – the stacking of these atmospheric rivers the likes of which we’ve not experienced in our lifetimes,” the governor said. “The reality is this is just the eighth of what we anticipate will be nine atmospheric rivers.”

Though this weekend’s rainfall totals will be less than in previous storms, the threshold for flooding is much lower now because the ground is too saturated to absorb any more water in many areas.

“The challenges will present themselves over the course of the next few days rather acutely, particularly because everything’s saturated, particularly because the grounds are overwhelmed.” Newsom said. “What may appear less significant in terms of the rainfall may actually be more significant in terms of the impacts on the ground and the flooding and the debris flow.”

Widespread rainfall totals through Monday will range between 2 to 3 inches along the coast and interior valleys, with 4 to 6 inches possible for the San Francisco Bay area and the nearby Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia mountains. This will likely lead to a few instances of flooding as well as mud, rock and landslides.

River flooding is also a major concern, particularly around the Russian River in Northern California and the Salinas River near Monterey.

Monterey County officials warned this week that flooding from the rising Salinas River could turn the area into an island and cut it off from essential services.

To the east, in Merced County, crews rushed to place rocks in the Bear Creek area ahead of the storm’s arrival, worried that high-water conditions could continue to erode the levee and eventually lead to levee failure in the downtown area of Merced.

Rescuers resumed their search for 5-year-old Kyle Doan, who was pulled from his mother’s hands by rushing floodwater on Monday, after it was hampered Saturday by the storm, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department said.

Water and weather conditions improved enough Sunday afternoon to allow the search to continue. Ongoing monitoring of the river, as well as the surrounding floodwater in San Miguel, have indicated a drop in water levels and will let the crew to search new areas, the sheriff’s department said.

The child and his mother were on the way to school Monday when floodwater overwhelmed their SUV. The mother managed to remove Kyle from his car seat and held onto him but their hands slipped and they were separated.

The mother was later pulled safely out of the water. But Kyle has not been found.

Members of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team, the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team, and California Highway Patrol air units were looking for the boy. Troops from the National Guard were previously involved with the search but have since been released from the mission.



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Southeast tornadoes: Authorities are ‘finding more bodies,’ coroner says, a day after 35 tornadoes reportedly struck the South and left at least 7 dead

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CNN
 — 

At least seven people, including a child, were killed Thursday as severe storms swept across the South, where ferocious winds sent residents running for cover, blew roofs off homes and knocked out power to thousands.

Yet the death toll could rise, as authorities were “finding more bodies” Friday morning in central Alabama’s hard-hit Autauga County, Coroner Buster Barber said.

Recovery efforts will continue Friday after the storms damaged power lines, severed tree limbs and sent debris flying into streets in Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky, where at least 35 preliminary tornado reports were recorded as of Thursday evening, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

At least six people died in Alabama’s Autauga County, Barber had said Thursday. In Georgia’s Butts County, a 5-year-old was killed when a tree fell on top of a car, the county’s coroner Lacey Prue told CNN affiliate WSB.

In Selma, Alabama – known for its role in the civil rights movement and home to about 17,000 people – a huge tornado left behind widespread destruction. At a tax office, Deborah Brown and others had to rush to safety after seeing what looked like a tornado rolling down the street, she said.

“We could have been gone, y’all,” Brown said in a Facebook video. “We had to run for cover. We had to go run and jump in the closet.”

The tornado that struck Selma likely was on the ground for at least 50 miles and caused damage to seven counties, National Weather Service Meteorologist Gerald Satterwhite said. It probably was an EF-2 or EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, he said, meaning the twister packed wind gusts of least 111 mph.

In adjacent Autauga County, at least two tornado reports were made.

Thursday’s severe storms left about 45,000 homes and businesses still in the dark Friday morning across Georgia and Alabama, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us.

The storms marked the latest bout of severe weather to turn deadly in the US as experts point to the human-induced climate crisis as a cause for such extreme events. Millions in California are reeling from weeks of flooding rain that has killed at least 18 people and left thousands without power.

Rescue and cleanup operations are due to resume Friday as what’s left of the storms moves by late afternoon through the Florida Peninsula, leaving cooler, sunny weather across the region.

Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. asked residents to conserve water as their treatment facilities are affected by the power outages.

“We’ve got to layer up and get ready,” Perkins said as temperatures in the area began to fall, with overnight lows over the next several days to dip below freezing.

Governors in Alabama and Georgia both declared states of emergency in stricken areas to help with rescue and cleanup efforts.

“We always keep in mind that while weather events are intriguing from a scientific perspective, they can result in deep and lasting impacts to people. Our thoughts are with those impacted by today’s severe weather,” the National Weather Service in Birmingham said in a tweet.

“My prayers are with their loved ones and communities,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a tweet. “We are far too familiar with devastating weather, but our people are resilient. We will get through it and be stronger for it.”

In addition to destruction caused by tornadoes and powerful storms, damaging winds spun across the region from Mississippi to Virginia.

Across the South and the central US, more than 160 damaging wind reports were recorded in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. Nineteen severe hail reports were recorded in Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, West Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia.

In northeast Mississippi, several buildings lay flattened or severely damaged in Monroe County after a storm passed through Thursday morning, video tweeted by the state’s emergency management agency shows. No injuries were reported there, the agency said.

Tornado damage in Alabama’s Dallas County – home to Selma – spanned the length of the county, coroner William Alan Dailey said in a video conference.

Krishun Moore’s house in Selma was torn up when a storm sent her and her mother to shelter in their bathroom, she said. “All we heard was wind and the whole house was shaking,” Moore told CNN, adding no one was injured.

Priscilla Lewis, who shared photos of the damage in Selma with CNN, said the damage made it nearly impossible to leave the downtown area Thursday. No deaths were reported in Dallas County as of Thursday, but some residents suffered injuries.

“This is a disaster area. Power lines are down and trees are down – this is really dangerous,” Dallas County Probate Judge Jimmy Nunn said during a news conference.

In neighboring Autauga County, at least 20 homes were either damaged or destroyed, according to Gary Weaver, the deputy director of the county’s emergency management agency.

Damage survey teams will be in the field over the next several days across the area, the National Weather Service in Birmingham said.

Due to the storms’ extensive impact on some roads in Georgia, some students had been unable to leave four middle schools south of Atlanta, according to their school system Thursday night.

By Friday morning, more than two dozen students were reunited with their families, Griffin-Spalding County School System said in a social media post, after being required to shelter on school grounds because storm debris had blocked access to roadways.

Spalding County, where the school district is located, declared a state of emergency Thursday due to a reported tornado in the community, officials said on Facebook, urging residents to shelter in place. Parts of the state were under a tornado watch Thursday night.

“When you start getting onto the roads, there’s going to be no way to get to where you’re going,” said T.J. Imberger, Spalding County public works director.

The Griffin-Spalding School District will be closed Friday as the area recovers from the severe storms.

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Tornado causes ‘significant damage’ in Selma, Alabama, mayor says, as severe storms rake Southeast

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CNN
 — 

A huge tornado that tore through the Alabama city of Selma Thursday caused “significant damage,” Selma’s mayor said – one of more than a dozen twister reports made in that state alone as severe storms tear through the Southeast leaving several injured.

The “large and extremely dangerous tornado” in Selma, confirmed by the National Weather Service, hit the city at 12:19 p.m. CT and continued east, the service said.

“Please refrain from traveling the roadways and stay away from down power lines,” Mayor James Perkins Jr. said in a Facebook post.

What appeared to be an enormous funnel cloud passed through the area, according to images shared by Mike Pitts. After it passed, Pitts’ pictures showed homes without roofs, other roofs shorn of shingles, and roads blocked by piles of debris.

The storm “tore up” Selma resident Krishun Moore’s house, but no one there was injured, she told CNN. She took shelter in a bathroom with her mother.

“All we heard was wind and the whole house was shaking,” Moore said.

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Selma, a city of some 17,000 people roughly 50 miles west of Montgomery, is the site of a landmark 1965 civil rights march in which protesters were beaten and tear-gassed by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, an incident referred to as “Bloody Sunday.”

The Selma tornado came as severe storms capable of tornadoes are sweeping across the Southeast Thursday, injuring several people and leaving damage in several states with the potential for hours of more destruction ahead.

Ricky Adams, director of field operations with Alabama Emergency Management, said there are no immediate reports of fatalities in the state.

The damage is the worst in Selma, Adams said, “but again, it’s still early and we’re still assessing.”

There are a lot of trees down and rescue operations are slow going, he added.

More than 35 million people in the Southeast and the Ohio Valley – from Louisiana eastward to the Carolinas and from Kentucky south to the Gulf Coast – are under some level of threat for severe storms Thursday that could include damaging wind gusts and tornadoes, the Storm Prediction Center said.

By early afternoon, tornado watches covered parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, the western Florida Panhandle and far western North Carolina with various expirations.

And more than 360,000 people in the Atlanta metropolitan area were under a tornado warning after a twister was observed near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The airport, a hub for Delta Airlines, was under a ground stop as the storm passed through.

Thursday’s greatest risk of severe storms – an “enhanced” risk, or level 3 of 5 – is predicted for about 9.5 million people over parts of Alabama and Georgia, including the Birmingham, Montgomery and Atlanta areas, the prediction center said.

More than 118,000 customers in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee were without power as of 3:30 p.m. ET, according to PowerOutage.us.

Damage reports across the Southeast and the Ohio Valley were piling up Thursday as storms progressed.

In northern Alabama’s Morgan County alone, a storm caused 10 to 15 injuries Thursday morning – none of which are believed to be life-threatening – and damaged numerous buildings, county sheriff’s spokesman Mike Swafford said.

Streets and fields were littered with debris and downed power lines in Decatur, a Morgan County community roughly 25 miles southwest of Huntsville, pictures from city police and the county sheriff’s department showed.

Siding was ripped off a Decatur hotel, according to pictures taken by hotel guest Mark Spychala, who said he sheltered in a laundry room as the storm hit Thursday morning.

“We lost power, and could hear the wind and rain” pummel the area outside, Spychala told CNN. The National Weather Service preliminarily attributed the Decatur damage to strong winds.

Several preliminary tornado reports were made in the morning in Alabama, including in northwestern Alabama’s Winston County and western Alabama’s Sumter County, where building damage was reported, the weather service said.

Downed trees and power lines were reported along several of the roads of Winston County, whose communities are dozens of miles northwest of Birmingham.

“Motorists are urged to only travel roadways in emergency situations and to remain weather aware,” the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a series of tweets about the Winston County damage.

In northeastern Mississippi’s Monroe County, several rural buildings lay flattened or severely damaged after a storm passed through Thursday morning, video tweeted by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency shows.

No injuries were reported there, according to the agency, which said a tornado could have caused the damage. The weather service preliminarily said strong winds caused damage in the county.

Wind damage to trees and buildings also were reported in other locations across parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky before noon, the weather service said.



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California weather: Monterey Peninsula could become an island as storms flood swaths of California

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CNN
 — 

Monterey Peninsula residents could soon be living on an island as mammoth flooding threatens to cut them off from the rest of California.

The state has been hammered by a cascade of atmospheric rivers – long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that can carry moisture thousands of miles.

At least 18 people have died, neighborhoods have turned into lakes, and countless homes have been destroyed as a string of storms toppled trees and paralyzed communities over the past two weeks.

California’s flooding, in pictures


But a sliver of good news emerged Thursday: The nearly relentless rainfall has lifted much of California out of “extreme drought” conditions.

And much of the state is getting a brief respite from brutal weather Thursday. But cities are still inundated – and more storms are on the way.

Just south of the San Francisco Bay Area, cities including Monterey, Carmel and Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula could soon be severed from the rest of California due to epic floodwater.

“If anyone was here in 1995, you know that during a large flooding event, the Monterey Peninsula became an island – people were either stuck on one side or the other,” Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto warned Wednesday evening.

“And we anticipate that we’re going to go into a similar situation, but not as bad. Some of the roadways are going to be closed, and you could be stuck on one side or the other.”

The sheriff’s office upgraded evacuation warnings to evacuation orders Wednesday in low-lying areas near the Salinas River.

“Monterey Peninsula may become an island again like it did in the ’95 floods, so please start preparing now,” the sheriff warned.

Nieto said it could be days before residents are allowed to return home, as crews need to make sure the area is safe.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, here’s what’s in store for California as another round of storms heads its way:

Thursday: Heavy rain will be confined along the northern California coast and into Oregon and Washington through Thursday night, with a slight risk of excessive rainfall in effect for northwestern California.


Friday: An atmospheric river will likely pummel the northern California and central California coast on Friday. Winter storm watches will likely begin across the Sierra Nevada range.

Heavy snowfall could lead to dangerous mountain travel conditions Friday and Saturday at elevations over 5,000 feet and in the northern and central California passes.


Saturday: A second system will move in on Saturday, and rainfall will spread south and begin to impact the whole state. Excessive rainfall threats will likely be issued for central California.

The recent storms have crippled travel and left dozens of highways inoperable.

At least 40 state routes were closed as of Wednesday night, state transportation spokesman Will Arnold said.

“We’re asking the public: If you don’t need to be on the roadways, please stay home and avoid any non-essential trips,” Arnold said.

Over 100 National Guard members were in San Luis Obispo County searching for missing 5-year-old Kyle Doan after he was swept away from a vehicle surrounded by floodwater on Monday.

Less than 1% of California is now under “extreme drought” – down from one-third of the state just two weeks ago, according to the latest US Drought Monitor report published Thursday.

“Intense precipitation in California the past few weeks – particularly late December and early January – has significantly reduced drought intensity in California,” according to the US Drought Monitor.

In 16 days, swaths of California received 50% to 70% of the amount of precipitation that they would usually get in a whole year, according to the National Weather Service.

Isolated areas, especially in the mountains near Santa Barbara, have recorded more than 90% of their annual precipitation.

But more than 95% of the state still faces some drought designation.

Large portions of the state remain in “moderate” or “severe” drought “since moisture deficits have been entrenched across some areas for the last 2-3 years,” the drought summary said.

The recent rains have “provided a generous boost” to key reservoirs in the state, but most are still below the long-term average for this time of the year.



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‘A very significant emergency’: California’s deadly, record-setting storms are about to get an encore

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CNN
 — 

The historic storms devastating much of California have turned entire neighborhoods into lakes, unleashed sewage into floodwater and killed at least 18 people.

And there’s more to come. About 5 million people were under flood watches Wednesday as yet another atmospheric river is bringing more rain to California.

“The state has been experiencing drought for the last four years, and now we have storm upon storm,” California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis said Wednesday.

“We’ve had six storms in the last two weeks. This is the kind of weather you would get in a year and we compressed it just into two weeks.”

It had already been “one of the deadliest disasters in the history of our state,” Brian Ferguson, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services spokesman said Wednesday before the 18th death was reported.

“Yesterday, we had perhaps more air rescues than we’ve ever had on any other single day in the state’s history,” Ferguson said, adding that the Golden State is not out of the woods yet.

“While there is a bit of a break today, we continue to see additional storms prepared to come onshore in the next two days,” he said. “We’re continued to be concerned about our streams, our culverts and some of the areas that are prone to mudslides, particularly along our central coast.”

The flood watches Wednesday are primarily in Northern and Central California, including Sacramento, the North Bay and Redding. That barely leaves enough time for residents in flood-ravaged neighborhoods to assess the devastation before the next storm.

“It’s just brown water everywhere. And it’s just rushing through – it was going fast,” Fenton Grove resident Caitlin Clancy said.

“We had a canoe strapped up, that we thought if we needed to, we could canoe out. But it was moving too fast.”

The onslaught of recent storms came from a parade of atmospheric rivers – long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that can carry moisture thousands of miles.

“We have had five atmospheric rivers come into California over two weeks,” Kounalakis said.

“Everything is wet. Everything is saturated. Everything is at a breaking point, and there is more rain coming.”

In fact, four more atmospheric rivers are expected to hit California in the next 10 days.

Here’s what’s in store as another round of ferocious weather barrels down on the West Coast:

• The heaviest rain over the next seven days is expected in northern parts of California, where the National Weather Service predicts an additional 5 to 10 inches. On Wednesday, Northern California got a radar-estimated 1-2 inches of rain, with some higher elevations getting around 3 inches.

• The rain shifted north Wednesday afternoon, giving Central California a brief pause. There’s a slight risk – level 2 of 4 – for excessive rainfall Thursday for the northwest coast, and a marginal risk – level 1 of 4 – along the Pacific Northwest coast.

• Precipitation pushed inland to the Sierra Nevada Wednesday afternoon, dumping more snow. Snow was still falling Wednesday evening.

Another round of atmospheric moisture is expected to come onshore Friday, but less severe than earlier ones. A slight risk for excessive rainfall has been issued for the northwest coast of the state, with a marginal risk south, including the hard-hit Bay Area and San Luis Obispo.

Rescue crews in San Luis Obispo County are scrambling to find 5-year-old Kyle Doan, who was swept away from a truck near the Salinas River Monday morning.

National Guard members arrived Wednesday to help with the search, and more will be arriving Thursday, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet Wednesday.

The sheriff’s office earlier urged the public to leave the search operation to the professionals to avoid the risk of volunteers needing to be rescued themselves.

As another storm looms, many residents are still grappling with devastation to their communities.

Rachel Oliviera used a shovel to try to push out some of the floodwater and thick mud enveloping her Felton Grove home.

“It’s backbreaking labor,” Oliviera said, visibly emotional.

But she was more concerned about her neighbors, whose homes were also covered in thick mud.

“A lot of us that live here in the neighborhood are elderly, and can’t actually physically do the cleanup.”

In the Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, several people had to be rescued after a sinkhole swallowed two vehicles Tuesday. In Malibu, a massive boulder came crashing down, shutting down a key roadway.

In parts of Santa Barbara County, “the storm caused flows through the sewer system to exceed capacity, resulting in the release of sewage from the system to the street,” County Supervising Environmental Health Specialist Jason Johnston said Monday evening.

The local health department warned the water could increase the risk of illnesses.

Another sinkhole was reported Monday in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Maria, where 20 homes were evacuated, CNN affiliate KEYT reported.

“The storms hit us like a water balloon exploding and just dropped water down through our rivers and creeks. So it’s been this excessive amount of flooding – it’s been the cycles over and over again,” Santa Cruz County spokesman Jason Hoppin told CNN.

Hoppin said 131 homes in the county received significant damage, but could be salvaged, while five others are not salvageable.

Trees have been toppling, claiming lives and causing property destruction and roadway obstructions. Sacramento officials estimate that about 1,000 trees have fallen since New Year’s Eve, Sacramento Department of Public Works spokeswoman Gabby Miller told CNN on Wednesday, adding that staff and crews have been working around the clock on cleanup.

In San Francisco, the public works department has logged about 1,300 tree-related incidents, which include downed trees, but also just limbs and branches, according to Rachel Gordon, director of policy and communications at San Francisco Public Works.

Parks that are home to some of the state’s iconic redwoods haven’t been spared, according to California State Parks spokesperson Adeline Yee.

“At Redwood National and State Parks and Big Basin Redwood State Park, we’ve seen some downed trees that are blocking roads and trails,” Yee said. “At this time, most of the trees that have come down are not the old-growth redwoods.”

In the state park system, 54 park units were closed as of Wednesday morning, and 38 were partially closed.

The recent atmospheric river storm system also has left dozens of state travel routes inoperable, and at least 40 are closed, according to Caltrans spokesman Will Arnold.

“Caltrans has activated our 12 Emergency Operations Centers throughout the state and more than 4,000 crews are running 24/7 maintenance patrols for road hazards like downed trees, flooded roads, mudslides/rockslides,” Arnold said.

The recent storms turned fatal after trees crashed onto homes and cars, rocks and mud cascaded down hillsides and floodwater rapidly rose.

At least 18 people have died in California storms in just the past two weeks. The latest victim was a 43-year-old woman, whose body was recovered Wednesday from inside a vehicle that had been washed into a flooded Sonoma County vineyard, officials said. Divers found the vehicle submergd in 8 to 10 feet of water.

“That’s more than we’ve lost in the last two years of wildfires,” the lieutenant governor said. “So this is a very significant emergency.”

Rebekah Rohde, 40, and Steven Sorensen, 61, were both found “with trees on top of their tents” over the weekend, the Sacramento County Coroner said. Both were unhoused, according to the release.

In the San Joaquin Valley, a tree fell on a pickup truck on State Route 99 in Visalia on Tuesday, killing the driver. A motorcyclist also died after crashing into the tree, the California Highway Patrol said.

Another driver died after entering a flooded roadway in Avila Beach Monday, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said.

“It only takes six inches of water to lose control of a car to be knocked over. In 12 inches, cars start floating away,” Kounalakis said this week.

“You’ve heard that creeks that have risen 14 feet just in the last day and in certain areas we’ve had over a foot of rain – just in the last 48 hours. So it is unbelievable.”

Several areas across the state have registered 50% to 70% of their average annual rainfall just since the parade of atmospheric river events began to impact the state on December 26, according to the National Weather Service. Oakland got 69% of its annual average, Santa Barbara 64%, Stockton 60%, and downtown San Francisco 59%.

Downtown San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Barbara have each gotten more than a foot of rain, according to the NWS.

Though none of the coming storms are expected to individually be as impactful as the most recent ones, the cumulative effect could be significant in a state where much of the soil is already too saturated to absorb any more rain.

And the state’s ongoing drought has parched the landscape so much, the soil struggles to absorb the incoming rainfall – which can lead to dangerous flash flooding.

Scientists have warned the climate crisis is having a significant effect on California’s weather, increasing the swings between extreme drought and extreme rain.



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US

California storm: 90% of residents are under flood watches as another storm threatens mudslides, power outages and deadly inundation

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CNN
 — 

Much of California can’t soak up another drop of rain. Yet the state is getting pummeled again with torrential downpours and ferocious winds, causing power outages and treacherous travel conditions.

More than 34 million Californians were under a flood watch Monday – about 90% of the state’s population and 10% of the US population.

Parts of the central California coast got walloped with 1 to 1.25 inches of rainfall per hour, the Weather Prediction Center said. Extensive rainfall there Monday triggered significant flooding, mudslides, debris flows and closed roadways.

Widespread rainfall totals of 3 to 6 inches have been observed from just south of San Francisco to just north of Los Angeles. Isolated amounts of 6 to more than 10 inches have been observed in the higher terrain near the coast.

As the rain shifted slowly to the south Monday toward Los Angeles, the National Weather Service there warned of the risk of flooding, debris flow in land scarred by recent wildfires and an increased risk of rock and mudslides in mountains and on canyon roads.

And hurricane-force wind gusts topping 74 mph thrashed states across the western US. More than 37 million people were under wind alerts Monday in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming.

A 132-mph wind gust lashed Oroville, California. Residents in Washoe City, Nevada, were hit with a 98-mph gust, the Weather Prediction Center said.

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“Expect widespread power outages, downed trees and difficult driving conditions,” the National Weather Service in Sacramento tweeted. “Now is the time to prepare if you have not already!”

Almost 92,000 homes, businesses and other power customers had no electricity Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.

And the central California coast could be at risk of a tornado, CNN Meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

The severe weather is part of a relentless parade of atmospheric rivers slamming the West Coast.

California is now extremely vulnerable to flooding because much of the state has been scarred by historic drought or devastating wildfires – meaning the land can’t soak up much rainfall.

And after an onslaught of storms since late December led to deadly flooding, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Sunday: “We expect to see the worst of it still in front of us.”

Two bouts of major rainfall are expected to hammer the West Coast over the next few days – without much of a break between events for the water to recede.

The system is part of an atmospheric river – a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles, like a fire hose in the sky.

The atmospheric river slamming California on Monday could result in a 1-in-50 year or 1-in-100 year rainfall event near Fresno, the Weather Prediction Center said.

A moderate risk – level 3 of 4 – of excessive rainfall covers over 26 million people in California, including in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Fresno, where rain could fall at 1 inch per hour.

The San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County has risen 14 feet in just over four hours and is in major flood stage. Parts of the county will experience “widespread flooding at shallow depths,” and the city of Santa Cruz will have serious flooding, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Geological Survey.

The threat will shift further south Tuesday, with a level 3 of 4 risk centered over Los Angeles.

“While some of the forecast rain totals are impressive alone, it is important to note that what really sets this event apart are the antecedent conditions,” the National Weather Service office in San Francisco said.

“Multiple systems over the past week have saturated soil, increased flow in rivers and streams, and truly set the stage for this to become a high impact event.”

In Sacramento County, officials warned “flooding is imminent” and issued evacuation orders for the Wilton community near the Cosumnes River before roads become impassable.

Wilton residents also had to evacuate during last week’s storm, when exit routes flooded quickly, officials said.

El Dorado, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara and Alameda counties have issued evacuation warnings or recommendations for some areas due to possible flooding and other safety risks as forecasters warned of swelling rivers.

Residents in all areas of Montecito, the city of Santa Barbara and parts of Carpinteria and Summerland are being ordered to evacuate immediately due to the threat of the ongoing storm, the Santa Barbara County Incident Management Team said on Monday evening.

“LEAVE NOW! This is a rapidly evolving situation,” the team said in a release.

Montecito is a haven for the rich and famous, including Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres. Monday marks exactly five years since heavy rains in the area caused deadly mud- and landslides.

Santa Barbara County authorities are advising residents to “be prepared to sustain yourself and your household for multiple days if you choose not to evacuate, as you may not be able to leave the area and emergency responders may not be able to access your property in the event of road damage, flooding, or a debris flow.”

Newsom on Sunday asked the White House for an emergency declaration to support response and recovery efforts.

“We are in the middle of a deadly barrage of winter storms – and California is using every resource at its disposal to protect lives and limit damage,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are taking the threat from these storms seriously, and want to make sure that Californians stay vigilant as more storms head our way.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Monday issued a Local Proclamation of Emergency due to the ongoing series of winter storms that began New Year’s Eve, according to a news release from his office.

This storm system arrives on the heels of a powerful cyclone that flooded roads, toppled trees and knocked out power last week to much of California. Earlier, a New Year’s weekend storm system produced deadly flooding.

At least 12 Californians have died from “storm-related impacts” such as flooding since late December, the governor’s office said.

In San Luis Obispo County, dive teams from the sheriff’s office and Cal Fire rescuers were searching Monday for a 5-year-old child reported to have been swept away in flood waters near the Salinas River in San Miguel.

“Floods kill more individuals than any other natural disaster,” California Emergency Services Director Nancy Ward said Sunday. “We’ve already had more deaths in this flood storm since December 31 than we had in the last two fire seasons of the highest fire acreage burned in California.”

Flood-related deaths can happen when drivers attempt to cross standing water.

“Just a foot of water and your car’s floating. Half a foot of water, you’re off your feet. Half foot of water, you’re losing control of your vehicle,” Newsom said.

“We’re seeing people go around these detours because they don’t see any obstacles – they think everything is fine, and putting their lives at risk or putting first responders lives at risk.”

For anyone who doesn’t need to travel during the peak of this storm, “please don’t,” California Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot said. “Be prepared for power outages and other interruptions. Have those flashlights, the candles, batteries, charge cell phones at the ready.”

Already, flooded roads, toppled trees and downed power lines are making travel difficult, California Highway Patrol said. Some fallen trees crushed cars and homes over the weekend. On Monday, portions of the Pacific Coast Highway – US 101, a major north-south highway, were closed.

The Santa Barbara Airport, a tri-county regional airport, is closed because of flooding airport officials said Monday.

California is experiencing “weather whiplash,” going from intense drought conditions to now contending with its fifth atmospheric river, Newsom said.

Much of the state has already seen 5 to 8 inches of rain over the last week. Two to 4 more inches of rain are expected across the coasts and valleys – and even more in mountains and foothills through Tuesday.

Rising from swelling rivers could spill over and inundate communities.

The rainfall over the weekend brought renewed flood concerns for streams, creeks and rivers. The Colgan Creek, Berryessa Creek, Mark West Creek, Green Valley Creek and the Cosumnes River all have gauges that are either above flood stage or expected to be in the next few days.

“The cumulative effect of successive heavy rainfall events will lead to additional instances of flooding. This includes rapid water rises, mudslides, and the potential for major river flooding,” the National Weather Service said Monday.

The moisture is expected to sink southward Monday night, making flooding “increasing likely” over the Southern California coastal ranges Tuesday, the weather service said. Fierce winds are expected to accompany the storm as it pushes inland.

“Valley areas will likely see gusts as high as 45-50 mph, with gusts greater than 60 mph possible in wind prone areas,” the National Weather Service in Reno said. The Sierra Ridge could receive peak gusts between 130 to 150 mph Monday.

For those at higher elevations, intense snow and ferocious winds will be the biggest concerns.

Parts of the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada have gotten more than 100” – or 8.3 feet – of snow in just the past few weeks, the Weather Prediction Center said.

Now, another 6 feet of snow is expected in some parts of the Sierra.

As the storm pushes inland, more than 5 feet of snow could fall along the Sierra Crest west of Lake Tahoe, the weather service said.

The heavy snow and strong winds could lead to near whiteout conditions on roads.



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US

California flooding: All of Montecito under evacuation order

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rescuers ended the search for a 5-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in central California while the entire coastal community of Montecito was ordered to evacuate Monday as the latest in a series of powerful storms walloped the state.

Tens of thousands of people remained without power, and some schools closed for the day. Streets and highways transformed into gushing rivers, trees toppled, mud slid and motorists growled as they hit roadblocks caused by fallen debris. The death toll from the relentless string of storms climbed from 12 to 14 on Monday, after two people were killed by falling trees, state officials said.

A roughly seven-hour search for the boy turned up only his shoe before officials called it off as water levels were too dangerous for divers, officials said. The boy has not been declared dead, said spokesperson Tony Cipolla of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.

The boy’s mother was driving a truck when it became stranded in floodwaters just before 8 a.m. near Paso Robles, a small city inland from California’s central coast, according to Tom Swanson, assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.

Bystanders were able to pull the mother out of the truck, but the boy was swept out of the vehicle and downstream, likely into a river, Swanson said. There was no evacuation order in the area at the time.

About 130 miles (209 kilometers) to the south, the entire community of Montecito and surrounding canyons scarred by recent wildfires were under an evacuation order that came on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave.

The National Weather Service reported rainfall rates of one inch (2.5 centimeters) per hour, with heavy downpours expected throughout the night in the upscale area where roads wind along wooded hillsides studded with large houses. Montecito is squeezed between mountains and the Pacific and is home to celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Jamie McLeod’s property was under the Montecito evacuation order, but she said there is no way for her to “get off the mountain” with an overflowing creek on one side and a mudslide on the other. The 60-year-old owner of the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary said one of her employees came to make a weekly food delivery and is stuck, too.

McLeod said she feels fortunate because her home sits on high ground and the power is still on. But she said she tires of the frequent evacuation orders since the massive wildfire followed by the deadly landslide five years ago.

“It is not easy to relocate,” said McLeod. “I totally love it — except in catastrophe.”

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said the decision to evacuate nearly 10,000 people was “based on the continuing high rate of rainfall with no indication that that is going to change before nightfall.” Creeks were overflowing, and many roads were flooded.

Northbound lanes of U.S. 101, a key coastal route, were expected to be shut until Tuesday. Many other highways and local roads were closed because of rockslides and flooding.

Up the coast, evacuation orders were issued in Santa Cruz County for about 32,000 residents living near rain-swollen rivers and creeks. The San Lorenzo River was declared at flood stage, and drone footage showed numerous homes sitting in muddy brown water, the top halves of autos peeking out.

Maria Cucchiara, who lives in tiny, flooded Felton, went for a walk to count her blessings after “a huge branch harpooned” the roof of her small studio, she said.

“I have two kitties and we could’ve been killed. It was over a ton,” she said. “So needless to say, it was very disturbing.”

Nicole Martin, owner of the Fern River Resort in Felton, described a more laid-back scene Monday. Her clients sipped coffee amid towering redwood trees and were “enjoying the show,” she said, as picnic tables and other debris floated down the swollen San Lorenzo.

The river is usually about 60 feet (18 meters) below the cabins, Martin said, but it crept up to 12 feet (4 meters) from the cabins.

In Northern California, several districts closed schools and more than 35,000 customers remained without power in Sacramento — down from more than 350,000 a day earlier after gusts of 60 mph (97 kph) knocked majestic trees into power lines, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. A homeless person killed by a falling tree in the region was among the new deaths announced Monday.

The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” — long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific that can drop staggering amounts of rain and snow. The precipitation expected over the next couple of days comes after storms last week knocked out power, flooded streets, and battered the coastline.

President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration Monday to support storm response and relief efforts in more than a dozen counties.

The weather service issued a flood watch for a large portion of Northern and Central California, with 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of rain expected through Wednesday in the already saturated Sacramento-area foothills.

In the Los Angeles area, there was potential for as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain in foothill areas late Monday and Tuesday. High surf was also expected.

Much of California remains in severe to extreme drought, though the storms have helped fill depleted reservoirs.

___

Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, Janie Har and Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, Amy Taxin in Orange County, Nic Coury in Aptos, Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz and Haven Daley in Felton contributed to this report.

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