LOSANGELES (AP), Jan 10 (Reuters) – California was hit by a flood of rain early on Tuesday, the latest in a series of unrelenting storms that flooded roads and flooded roads. High waves hit the shores, turning rivers into bubbling floodplains and refugees. Thousands forced in a town with a history of deadly landslides. At least 14 people have died since the storm began last week.
The storm set off several tornado warnings early Tuesday and was expected to bring heavy snowfall to the Sierra Nevada mountains a day after bringing up to 14 inches of rain to high-altitude areas of central and southern California.
After a brief lull, another storm is expected to hit the entire state from Wednesday, exacerbating the misery and further inundation areas already threatened by floods and debris flows.
The storm threatened coastal and river towns, with more than 200,000 homes and businesses without power early Tuesday morning, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks power company reports. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood warning for the entire San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento Valley and Monterey Bay through Tuesday. Areas devastated by recent wildfires face the potential for mud and debris to slide off exposed hillsides where the protective layer of vegetation has not yet fully recovered.
The entire coastal area of Montecito, home to Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities, marks his fifth anniversary of a landslide that killed 23 of him and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave. In commemoration, we are asked to evacuate.
County officials have ordered the evacuation of her 20 homes in the Orcutt area. Floods and sinkholes damaged up to 15 homes.
Jamie MacLeod’s property was under an evacuation order in Montecito, but with a raging stream on one side and a landslide on the other, she said there was no way to “get off the mountain.” The 60-year-old owner of the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary said one of her employees was coming to deliver groceries every week and she was stuck.
Ms McLeod said she feels lucky because her own home is on a hill and the electricity is still on. But she’s tired of the frequent evacuation orders since the massive wildfires that followed a deadly landslide five years ago.
Another town a few miles down the coast, La Conchita in Ventura County, was evacuated. In 2005, 10 of her people died in landslides. In Ventura County, the Ventura River reached a record high of over 8 meters on Monday. A firefighter used a helicopter to rescue more than a dozen of his people trapped on a wave-rushing island. Water levels dropped rapidly overnight to mild flood levels.
The storm also washed 3 feet (1 meter) of mud and rocks onto Route 126, stranded long lines of cars and trucks. Rescuers worked late into the night to free them. In Los Angeles, a sinkhole swallowed two cars Monday night in the Chatsworth neighborhood. The two escaped alone, and firefighters rescued him with minor injuries, officials said.
President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency on Monday to support storm response and relief efforts in more than a dozen countries.
Much of California continues to suffer from severe to extreme drought, although storms have helped fill depleted reservoirs.
