At least three dead as rainstorms batter California
LOS ANGELES — California’s mega-atmospheric river continued its path of destruction Monday, with officials reporting the storm had taken a grim toll: At least three people have been killed by falling trees.
In addition to the deaths — all of which occurred in Northern California — a trail of damage, including flooding, mudslides and power outages, has spanned the state as the massive system continued to push through Southern California on Monday.
In neighboring Nevada, four people who were reported missing after an avalanche hit the Lee Canyon ski resort outside of Las Vegas have been found safe, according to authorities.
Dangerous winds kicked off the storm Saturday night across California’s Bay Area, Sacramento Valley and Central Coast, where gusts of more than 80 mph were recorded in some spots, causing fallen trees, power line damage and widespread outages. Brian Ferguson, spokesperson for the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said one of the deaths occurred in Santa Cruz County and the other in Sutter County, north of Sacramento.
By late Sunday, the slow-moving atmospheric river parked itself over the Los Angeles metropolitan area, jump-starting what the National Weather Service called “one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory.”
And by Monday morning, the storm was straddling Los Angeles and Orange counties, where an “extremely dangerous situation” was unfolding, including rushing rivers, downed trees, flooded streets and power outages, as well as landslides in Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains. Multiple homes were damaged, and dozens have been forced to evacuate.
Much of the worst rain and winds have passed, weather officials said Monday, but the system is far from done.
“Things have held. We are in pretty good shape,” Ferguson said, even while noting “we are not out of the woods yet.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department had responded to 130 flooding incidents, 49 mud and debris flows, half a dozen structure fires and several water rescues for stranded motorists, Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said Monday.
“The hazards of this storm have not passed,” Crowley said.
In the San Fernando Valley,
crews responded to a report of a 6-year-old boy who needed a rescue from a wash near Arleta, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. But after two hours of searching, officials called off the search of the flood control channel, which had 10 to 12 feet of water rushing at about 15 mph. Fire crews were never able to visually confirm a victim was in the water, the department said in a news release.
Agency spokesperson Nicholas Prange said there was little information about the 911 caller, and said it’s common for people to spot something in rushing water that might look like a person.
“We hope it was a false alarm,” Prange said. “But there’s always that possibility that the victim got caught underwater.”
The storm prompted a state of emergency declaration from Gov. Gavin Newsom along with evacuation orders and warnings for residents in and around wildfire burn scars in Sun Valley, Topanga, Juniper Hills and other local areas. On Monday morning, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed a declaration of a local emergency to help the city respond to the storm.
Rainfall totals were continuing to pile up, including 10.28 inches in the Topanga area, 9.84 inches around Bel-air and 5.3 inches in downtown Los Angeles — with much more on the way, according to Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“There’s still a lot of rain to come,” he said. “There’s a lot of rain left.”
The plume of moisture was expected to linger over the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area through Monday night, followed by on-and-off rain today and possibly even some showers Wednesday, Kittell said.
“It’s definitely declining starting Wednesday,” he said, but “it’s not until after Friday that we get the all-clear.”
The storm was “remarkable and in some ways historic,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA. He noted that the system reached bombogenesis— or “bomb cyclone” — status as it zeroed in on the state Sunday, indicating a sustained drop in pressure and a rapid strengthening.
“The concern right now in Southern California is that the rain and the atmospheric river has been stalled, mainly over the same place it has been for the past 18 hours,” Swain said during a briefing Monday.
It is likely that Los Angeles will come close to, or even exceed, an all-time 24-hour rainfall record when all is said and done, he said.
The atmospheric river already smashed several daily rainfall records Sunday. Downtown Los Angeles received 4.1 inches of rain — breaking the record of 2.55 inches set Feb. 4, 1927. It was the Southern California area’s 10th wettest day since records began in 1877. Santa Barbara Airport broke a daily record with 2.39 inches of rain Sunday, as did Los Angeles International Airport with 1.76 inches and Long Beach Airport with 1.5 inches.
Statewide, about 300,000 people remained without power Monday, after a peak of 875,000 without electricity, Ferguson said.
Some 7,200 L.A. Department of Water and Power customers — of the utility’s 1.5 million total customers — are without power, DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo said Monday. West L.A., Midwilshire and Tarzana are the neighborhoods most affected, he said. More than 5,000 Southern California Edison customers were also without power, mostly in L.A. and Orange counties, according to the utility.
Kittell said the heaviest rain bands had mostly passed, though there is still a 30% chance for thunderstorms, which can bring dangerous downpours.
An urgent flash flood warning remained in effect for areas around the Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood Hills, while flood warnings and watches remained across the region.
Some of the worst weather Monday and Tuesday is expected in portions of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where the heaviest rain was still yet to come as the storm continued its crawl toward the state’s southern border, the National Weather Service said.
The San Bernardino Mountains could see up to 8 inches of additional rainfall through Tuesday evening, while the mountains of San Diego and Riverside counties could see an additional 4 inches, the NWS said. Officials there issued evacuation warnings in the mountain communities of Forest Falls, Seven Oaks, Barton Flats and Angelus Oaks for possible mud and debris flows.
Outside Las Vegas on Mount Charleston, the quartet were listed as missing after the same severe storm system that’s moving through California caused an avalanche at the Lee Canyon ski resort, according to Las Vegas police.
Search and rescue personnel with Metro Police were dispatched to the site. The department said on X that they were “trying to locate several people who are reported missing.”
“Everyone has been located and is safe,” the department tweeted an hour later. “We are currently assisting people off the mountain.”
The National Weather Service in Las Vegas warned people about a fierce winter storm hitting the region starting Sunday and extending through today. The storm is part of the same band of atmospheric moisture hovering over Southern California.
Meteorologists in Nevada told travelers to expect one to three feet of snow above 6,000 feet and wind gusts up to 55 miles per hour.