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Other Powerful storm is moving into southern California after forcing thousands to evacuate the north, prompting dozens of water rescues, causing widespread damage and bringing to 17 the death toll from the series of storms in the state in recent weeks, as reported by ABC7 and the Los Angeles Times.
A toddler crushed by falling trees, another 5-year-old washed away by floodwaters as his mother remains missing, and three bodies recovered from inside or near submerged vehicles on a rural stretch of highway led to an increase in the death toll.
As a series of storms continues to batter California, officials say the havoc is a testament to the unexpected ferocity of extreme weather.
As of Tuesday night, at least 17 people have died in circumstances directly related to an atmospheric river train that has flooded the state since New Year’s Eve, exceeding the death toll from the past two wildfire seasons combined.
“More lives than wildfires in the past two years combined,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said Monday.
More than 11 million people in West Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties were under a flood warning Tuesday morning.while some 34 million people across California, about 10% of all Americans, are under a flood watch, while the risk of landslides also moves to the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.
“What we’re seeing is absolutely the result of weather whiplash,” said Brian Ferguson, deputy director of crisis communication at the California Office of Emergency Services.
On California’s central coast, a driver died Monday afternoon after entering a flooded highway in Avila Beach, about 180 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said.
In the following days, Multiple people, including a 45-year-old man, a 57-year-old woman and a 61-year-old woman, were found dead in or next to submerged vehicles along Highway 99 and Dillard Road, which was flooded after the levees on the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers broke.
A 5-year-old boy was swept away by floodwaters Monday morning near the Salinas River in San Miguel, about 215 miles northwest of Los Angeles, authorities said.
The search for the boy was called off Monday afternoon, “because the weather had become too severe and it was no longer safe for first responders,” San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla told CNN. .
Tuesday’s storms are just the latest in a wave of atmospheric rivers that have hit the West Coast in recent weeks.
The storms have brought dangerous flooding and mudslides and prompted evacuations across the state, with much of California receiving 400% to 600% above-average rainfall totals at the time.
More than 24 hours as of Monday night, 2 to 7 inches of rain had fallen across much of the state’s lower elevations.
It was wetter in the mountainous areas of Southern California, where more than a foot of rain fell from Sunday through early Tuesday, particularly along the mountains of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
The biggest threat of new flooding Tuesday is in the mountains east of Los Angeles, where an additional 2 to 4 inches of rain could fall.
“Today’s heavy rains will further exacerbate ongoing flooding and prolong the risk of mudslides,” the Weather Prediction Center reported Tuesday, no small threat to California soil already marred by a record drought. and devastating forest fires.
Read more
* 5-year-old boy was swept away by the current inside a trapped vehicle in Paso Robles, California
* VIDEO: Firefighters rescue drivers stranded in flooding caused by storm hitting Los Angeles County
* Another round of rain will hit Los Angeles County and all of Southern California with the threat of flash flooding