New storm moves into drenched California
LOS ANGELES – Another storm pushed into California on Wednesday as the state cleaned up from a powerful weather system that coated mountains with much-needed snow and set rainfall records in the drought-stricken state.
The new storm was expected to impact Northern California with widespread rain, gusty winds and snowfall in coastal mountains and the Sierra Nevada, where the snowpack normally supplies about 30% of the state’s water needs.
The latest tempest followed on the heels of a multiday atmospheric river – a long plume of moisture from the Pacific Ocean that delivered remarkable rainfall, including more than 11 inches over 72 hours at Mount Tamalpais, north of San Francisco.
By Tuesday afternoon, 8.1 inches of rain had fallen in one area of the central coast’s Santa Barbara County. Downtown Los Angeles got 2.16 inches, more than doubling the date’s old record set in 1888.
More than 4.6 inches fell within 24 hours in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon, south of LA, where sheriff’s deputies rescued residents after mud inundated homes in the area scarred by wildfires.
No injuries were reported. Firefighters searched the surging Los Angeles River on Tuesday after discovering two submerged vehicles wedged against a bridge pillar south of downtown LA and learning that a third vehicle had been swept past the bridge. No victims, if any, were immediately located and firefighters were waiting for the water level to fall.
“The circumstances surrounding these three separate vehicles and their journey down the LA River remain unclear,” a Fire Department statement said.
Earlier, a man was rescued after being swept into a covered stream channel in the San Fernando Valley.
The storm prompted officials to shut down a 40-mile stretch of the iconic Highway 1 in the Big Sur area to repair damage and clean up rocks in lanes. The coastal route south of the San Francisco Bay Area got more than a foot of rain in 24 hours. It frequently experiences damage during wet weather.