Deadly California storm brings unrelenting rain, flooding
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A powerful storm lashing California on Monday has left at least three people dead and caused devastating mudslides and flooding, after dumping months’ worth of rain in a single day.
More than 10 inches of rain was recorded in one part of Los Angeles County in 24 hours of downpour, with no letup forecast in the coming days.
Mountainsides collapsed in the tony Hollywood Hills area, burying cars and damaging houses, while in nearby Beverly Glen, a mudslide knocked one home off its foundation.
The house’s contents – including a piano – were swept onto the road in the swanky neighborhood, where homes routinely change hands for millions of dollars.
“It sounded like lightning,” resident Dave Christensen told broadcaster KTLA.
“When I went out to... see what was there, I thought I saw a water heater where the house used to be and sure enough it was because the house had slid off the hill and into the road.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department said it had recorded 130 floods and 39 debris flows, with the risk of more to come as Monday’s rain ramps back up.
The precipitation comes from a line of moisture rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, a so-called atmospheric river dumping billions of liters of water.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service said much more rain was expected, and warned of “life-threatening flash flooding.”
“An ongoing atmospheric river event will continue to produce multiple rounds of heavy rainfall to parts of southern California including the Los Angeles Basin through Tuesday,” the agency said.