Photo: LACoPublicWorks / Courtesy
By: Manuel Ocaño / Special for La Opinión Posted Mar 21, 2023, 22:53 pm EDT
The Los Angeles sheriff and police asked the public to exercise extreme caution, especially when driving, in the face of the havoc caused by the twelfth atmospheric river this season, with rains that will continue today, Wednesday, and tomorrow Thursday.
“As storms shower Los Angeles County with rain, snow, ice and mud, it’s important to keep your eyes open and use caution when driving on our mountain roads,” said Sheriff Robert Luna.
The sheriff asked to consider “alternate routes, to avoid being stranded and suspend plans for possible hiking activities during a storm.”
The Los Angeles Police Department warned drivers in particular to watch out for hydroplaning conditions, which is, as its name suggests, similar to an aircraft slipping to land or take off from water, a phenomenon that has multiplied on avenues and roads in this storm season.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) warned that the passage on a section of highway 101 heading south, at the height of Fourth Street in Boyle Heights, was reduced to a single lane, due to an accumulation of water that could repeat itself during these rainy days. Some vehicles were stranded and had to be towed away.
The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) published photos of mudslides and roads broken by rains in different parts of southern California.
The National Weather Service is maintaining a possible flood watch for most of the Los Angeles area through sunset Wednesday with “extensive street flooding and creek and river flooding possible.”
This new atmospheric river was different from the others because it was accompanied by strong winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour throughout southern California.
The Los Angeles and San Diego airports reported that due to the intensity of the winds they had canceled 190 flights and 105 respectively as of Tuesday afternoon.
The rain, snow and wind warning remains, but wind gusts are expected to lose the “unusually strong” warning and shift to strong to moderate for the remainder of the storm.
The National Weather Service issued a special marine watch for the coastal strip from Malibu in the south to Port Hueneme in the north and as far as Santa Catalina and Anacapa Islands for conditions that included winds in excess of 49 knots, sizable hail, waterspouts marine and high waves.
As of Tuesday afternoon, no reports mentioned loss of life as a result of the current storm.
The Weather Service watch is in place from about the middle of the San Joaquin Valley to the Mexican border, but this time it was expected to hit harder across Southern California through Wednesday night.
The service also warned of possible severe flooding along streams, rivers and low-lying areas.
Rainfall totals could exceed three inches along the coasts and valleys, with double that expected in mountainous regions.
For Tuesday through Wednesday night there was up to a 40 percent chance of flash flooding in low-lying mountainous areas.
The federal Forest Service will keep access to hiking areas closed while the contingency passes, and warned that some 50 roads are deteriorated or closed due to the accumulated impact of storms.
The warning for snowfall from 4,000 feet and mainly above 6,000 feet also continues.
The service indicated that in parts of the San Gabriel Mountains, in areas above 6,000 feet, there could be up to five feet of accumulated snow.
Possible snow amounts decrease as elevation decreases, so two to ten inches of snow are forecast at 3,500 feet.
The remaining possible strong winds are only expected in mountainous areas, where they could reach gusts of 75 miles per hour.
Still, the storms have helped Los Angeles and the rest of the state of California recover the water they needed to weather the worst drought in decades.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has collected twice the average water it collects in the rainy season; went from 17 to 32 inches of water.