California hit by more storms and braces for potential flooding
SAN FRANCISCO — California was hit with more turbulent weather Sunday as thunderstorms, snow and damaging winds swept into the northern part the state, preceding another series of incoming storms and raising the potential for road flooding, rising rivers and mudslides on soils already saturated after days of rain.
The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow.
In the state capital, more than 230,000 customers were without electricity Sunday in the city of about 525,000 residents after gusts topping 60 mph knocked trees into power lines, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
Joey Kleemann was listening to the winds howling shortly after midnight, wondering whether she should move her car, when she heard a “gigantic, thumping, crashing sound” as a massive tree fell onto the Sacramento home where she’s lived for 25 years.
The gusts were strong enough to rip the tree up from its roots, pulling the concrete sidewalk up with it.
Cracks in the roof meant rain streamed into her dining area throughout the night. She’s hoping to get a tarp over the damaged area in anticipation of more showers.
“I just had a feeling with the winds. They were scary winds,” she said. “Mostly I focused on: it could be so much worse.”
The weather service’s Sacramento office said the region should brace for an even more powerful storm system to move in late Sunday and early Monday.
“Widespread power outages, downed trees and difficult driving conditions will be possible,” the office said on Twitter.
Evacuation warnings were in place for about 13,000 residents of a floodprone area of Sonoma County north of San Francisco, where the swollen Russian River was expected to overspill its banks in the coming days.
Deadly Colo. avalanche:
Searchers resumed looking Sunday for a snowmobiler missing in a Colorado mountain avalanche that killed another snowmobiler the day before.
The man still missing probably didn’t survive, Grand County Sheriff Brett Schroetlin said.
Searchers were using dogs and probing the avalanche field with poles in the area of Rollins Pass, which is also known as Corona Pass, outside Winter Park, he said.
They were looking for the 58-year-old man from northern Colorado amid avalanche danger rated “considerable” — midway up a five-tier scale from “low” to “extreme” — in the high country Sunday, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
The avalanche danger was similar when the slide occurred Saturday.
Authorities didn’t name the missing man. They also didn’t release the identity of a man who was found but could not be revived after the avalanche Saturday afternoon.
War in Ukraine: The Russian military claimed Sunday to have carried out deadly missile strikes on barracks used by Ukrainian troops in retaliation for the deaths of dozens of Russian soldiers
in a rocket attack a week ago. Ukrainian officials denied there were any casualties.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, killing 600 of them. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the strikes were retaliation for Ukraine’s attack in Makiivka, in which at least 89 Russian soldiers died.
Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east, said that Russian strikes on Kramatorsk damaged only civilian infrastructure, adding: “The armed forces of Ukraine weren’t affected.”
Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said two school buildings and eight apartment houses were hit overnight. Photos he posted showed no indication it had been an attack on the scale claimed by the Russians or that anyone had been in the buildings.
Iranians detained: Two Iranian men have been detained in Germany following a tip from U.S. security officials that at least one of them could be planning an attack with deadly chemicals, officials said Sunday.
Police and prosecutors said the brothers, aged 32 and 25, were detained overnight in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, northwest of Dortmund.
The authorities said in a joint statement the men are suspected to have planned a serious attack motivated by Islamic extremism, for which they had allegedly sought to obtain the potent toxins cyanide and ricin.
Specialists wearing anti-contamination suits were seen carrying evidence out of the older man’s home. Duesseldorf prosecutors later said an initial search of the premises turned up no toxic substances.
Prosecutors said they would ask a court to keep the men jailed pending further investigation.
Deadly accident in China:
A traffic accident in southern China killed 19 people and injured 20 others early Sunday as the annual Lunar New Year holiday travel rush got underway, authorities said.
The accident happened as China fully opened its borders Sunday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, welcoming visitors without strict quarantine requirements and allowing its citizens to go overseas.
The accident occurred outside the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi province, according to the local traffic management brigade. The cause was under investigation, the brigade said.
Heavy fog was also reported at the time of the accident, just after midnight, according to reports.
Website Jimu News quoted a resident as saying the victims were mourners from the village of Taoling who had set up a funeral tent on the side of the road, as is
common in rural China, and were hit by a passing truck as they were preparing to proceed to the local crematorium in the morning.
At least 40 people were killed and dozens injured in a bus crash in central Senegal, the country’s president said Sunday.
President Macky Sall tweeted that the collision happened in Gnivy village, in the Kaffrine region, about 3:30 a.m.
He declared three days of mourning starting Monday and said he will hold an inter-ministerial council to discuss road safety measures.
Public prosecutor Cheikh Dieng said the crash happened on National Road No. 1 when a public bus punctured a tire and veered across the road, colliding with another bus coming from the opposite direction.
At least 78 people are injured, some of them seriously, he said.