Weather packs wallop across US
Calif. prepares for floods; snow and ice hit Midwest
SAN FRANCISCO – A major winter storm approached California on Wednesday, causing crews to rush to clear storm drains in preparation for flooding and strong winds, as parts of the Midwest dealt with snow, ice or tornadoes, and the South recovered from strong overnight storms.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, 8,500 sandbags distributed by officials weren’t enough to reach demand as forecasters warned of imminent flooding. The South San Francisco Unified School District announced classes for its 8,000 students would be canceled Thursday.
The rain led to the cancellation of more than 60 flights at the San Francisco International Airport and delays of another 70, said Doug Yakel, an airport spokesman.
Heavy downpours accompanied by winds with gusts of up to 60 mph were expected later Wednesday and through Thursday and could cause flooding, downed trees and power outages, making driving conditions difficult, the National Weather Service said.
The storm comes days after a New Year’s Eve downpour led to the evacuations of people in rural Northern California communities and the rescue of several motorists from flooded roads. A few levees south of Sacramento were damaged, increasing flooding in the mostly rural area.
“Excessive rainfall over already saturated soils will result in rapid rises on creeks, streams and rivers as well as flooding in urban areas,” forecasters said in a report.
Tink Troy, who lives in South San Francisco, picked up some sandbags from the city’s public works department on Tuesday.
“They said (Saturday’s storm) was going to be bad, and it was really bad. Now they’re saying this one’s going to be worse. So I want to make sure I’m prepared and not having to do this when it’s pouring rain tomorrow,” she said.
The storms in California still aren’t enough to officially end the drought, now entering its fourth year. The U.S. Drought Monitor showed that most of the state is in severe to extreme drought.
“We know that it’ll take quite a bit of time and water to recover this amount of storage, which is why we don’t say that the drought is over once it starts raining,” said Jeanine Jones, drought manager for the California Department of Water Resources.
In the Midwest, ice and heavy snow took a toll. A Delta jet went off an icy taxiway after landing in a snowstorm in Minneapolis on Tuesday, but no passengers were injured, the airline said. The flight from Los Cabos, Mexico, had landed safely, but then the nose gear of the plane “exited the taxiway while turning toward the gate due to icy conditions,” Delta Airlines said.
It took about an hour to get the 147 passengers off the plane and bused to the terminal, said Jeff Lea, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.
The airport had received 10 inches of snow as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Another 3 to 5 inches was possible. Multiple schools were closed Wednesday in Minnesota and western Wisconsin as steady snow fell in the region.
To the south, a possible tornado damaged homes, downed trees and flipped a vehicle on its side in Montgomery, Alabama, early Wednesday. Christina Thornton, director of the Montgomery Emergency Management Agency, said radar indicated a possible, but unconfirmed, tornado. The storm had extremely high winds and moved through the area before dawn, she said.
Severe weather that swept Illinois on Tuesday produced at least six tornadoes, the largest number of rare January tornadoes recorded in the state since 1989, the National Weather Service said.
Five of the tornadoes occurred in central Illinois in or around the city of Decatur, while the sixth touched down near the Ford County community of Gibson City, the weather service said Wednesday.
Staff from the agency’s Chicago office planned to survey damage Wednesday in the Gibson City area, where at least two homesteads suffered damage and power lines were knocked down.