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Tag: California floods

  • Tens of 1000’s with out energy in California as newest storm lashes state

    High-wind warnings and advisories had been in impact from the Mexico border by Los Angeles and up into the San Francisco Bay space.

    Los Angeles,UPDATED: Mar 23, 2023 04:44 IST

    Tens of 1000’s of storm-weary Californians had been with out energy o Wednesday. (Image: Reuters)

    By Reuters:

    Tens of 1000’s of storm-weary Californians had been with out energy and beneath evacuation warnings on Wednesday as the newest storm packing wind-blown rain and snow threatened to carry extra flooding to the rain-soaked state.

    The “atmospheric river” storm might dump greater than an extra 1 inch (3 cm) of rain all through the day in components of the already-saturated Southern and Central California area, which has been hit arduous by a relentless string of storms that started in late December.

    High-wind warnings and advisories had been in impact from the Mexico border by Los Angeles and up into the San Francisco Bay space, the place gusts of as much as 60 miles per hour (97 kph) had been forecast for some spots.

    Much of the area together with components of Arizona and Nevada had been beneath flood watches and advisories on Wednesday brought on by the continued rain and snow soften, the National Weather Service mentioned.

    “Our rivers, streams and creeks are flowing at near capacity. Any more rain that we get today is only going to cause more flooding or worsen the flooding that is ongoing,” mentioned Bill South, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Hanford, California.

    More than 14,000 individuals statewide had been beneath orders to hunt greater floor due to flooding, with evacuation warnings issued for an additional 47,000 residents, Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for the California Office of Emergency Services, mentioned on Tuesday.

    ALSO READ | Heavy rains in California go away swimming pool dangling partway off cliff edge

    The bulk of evacuation orders, overlaying some 12,000 individuals, had been in Tulare County, a flood-stricken area within the San Joaquin Valley, the place excessive water from current levee breaches has inundated various communities, Crofts-Pelayo mentioned.

    More than 100,000 houses and companies in Central California had been with out energy early on Wednesday after sturdy winds from the storm took down energy traces and timber, in line with utility monitoring service PowerOutage.us.

    “The system exceeded all expectations,” the utility firm Pacific Gas and Electric mentioned in an announcement on its web site, noting that winds of 89 mph had been clocked in Santa Clara County.

    The storm was additionally bringing heavy snow to greater elevations. Total snow accumulations of as much as 4 toes (1.22 m) and domestically as much as 5 toes, had been within the forecast, the climate service mentioned.

    PARADE OF STORMS

    The storm marked the twelfth so-called atmospheric river since December to comb the US West Coast, fashioned from an immense airborne present of dense water vapour carried aloft from the ocean and flowing overland in bouts of heavy rain and snow.

    The fast succession of Pacific storms in the course of the previous three months has created an abrupt reversal of fortune for a state preoccupied for the previous few years by drought and wildfires – a swing in climate extremes that specialists say is symptomatic of human-induced local weather change.

    ALSO READ | Flooded California sees evacuations, energy outages, highway closures, New York buried beneath snow

    California’s harsh winter has triggered widespread property injury and upheaval for 1000’s of residents, with greater than 20 deaths attributed to the storms.

    But the glut of precipitation has additionally replenished sorely depleted reservoirs and the state’s mountain snowpack.

    Published On:

    Mar 23, 2023

  • Flooded California sees evacuations, energy outages, highway closures, New York buried below snow

    The governor has declared a state of emergency in 43 of California’s 58 counties. More than 130,000 properties and companies remained with out energy on Wednesday.

    A house is surrounded by floodwaters from the Pajaro River after days of heavy rain in Pajaro, California, US (Reuters)

    By Reuters:

    An atmospheric river dumped extra torrential rain on California on Wednesday, forcing evacuations, energy outages and highway closures, whereas the remnants of a robust Nor’easter blizzard buried a lot of upstate New York and New England below snow.

    The West Coast is getting pounded by a often moist season following twenty years of drought, creating havoc on roads and endangering blufftop properties alongside the coast in southern California’s Orange County.

    “It’s been fire to ice and no warm bath in between,” stated Governor Gavin Newsom, referring to the state’s pivot from wildfires only a few months in the past to one of many snowiest winters on report.

    The governor has declared a state of emergency in 43 of California’s 58 counties. More than 130,000 properties and companies remained with out energy on Wednesday, in response to PowerOutage.us.

    The eleventh atmospheric river of the season prompted officers to warn of potential flooding and mudslides from heavy rain, melting snowpack, saturated soils and swollen streams.

    ALSO READ | California copes with heavy rain, flooding in newest ‘atmospheric river’ storm

    By Wednesday afternoon the heavy rainfall related to the atmospheric river in California had ended, with solely gentle showers persisting in southern California, however forecasters warned of a potential twelfth atmospheric river subsequent week.

    Atmospheric river describes airborne currents of dense, tropical moisture from the Pacific. A sequence of them lashed California in speedy succession from late December via mid-January, killing at the least 20 individuals.

    Four individuals have died in the newest storm, Newsom stated whereas touring flood harm in Pajaro, on the state’s central coast, the place a levee broke on Saturday, forcing lots of the city’s 2,000 individuals, most of them Latino farmworkers, to evacuate.

    “We’re tired. Everybody’s tired,” Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto instructed the identical information convention the place Newsom spoke. “It’s hard for some of our most economically impoverished neighbours.”

    Monterey County reissued an evacuation order for a 40-kilometre stretch alongside the Salinas River and Highway 101, most of it low-lying farmland. Numerous coastal and inland roads had been closed.

    ALSO READ | New storm might hit California, climate physique alerts on extreme flooding

    The Sacramento River, the longest within the state, was reaching flood stage slightly below Shasta Dam, the state’s largest reservoir, the National Weather Service stated, issuing flood warnings to a number of cities alongside the river.

    In Tulare County, a farm area within the San Joaquin Valley, the Success Lake reservoir reached its capability, forcing officers to launch water via the Schafer Dam spillway and ordering evacuations downstream.

    While agricultural communities obtained pummelled within the north, rich coastal communities took the brunt of the storm in southern California.

    In Newport Beach, an upscale Orange County enclave, a house with spectacular ocean views hung within the steadiness because the blufftop beneath it collapsed.

    In close by San Clemente, blufftop properties had been evacuated on account of landslides, together with one the place a yard swimming pool was left dangling over the precipice.

    “It sounded kind of like an earthquake,” stated CJ Smith, 41, whose residence was affected. He acknowledged the risks that include residing on a bluff above the seaside. “The views are beautiful. To us, it’s kind of worth the risk.”

    Pacific Coast Highway was closed at a number of factors alongside the Orange County coast.

    SNOW IN THE EAST

    In the Northeast, a late-winter blizzard dumped about 2 toes (60 centimetres) of snow within the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut, and a foot or extra in elements of New York’s Hudson Valley.

    Across Massachusetts, the accumulations left by the Nor’easter – a sort of storm that impacts the US East Coast and is called after the course of the wind – assorted significantly. In Colrain, a city of 1,700 within the northwestern a part of the state close to the Vermont border, 3 toes (91 cm) of snow was on the bottom, whereas Boston’s suburbs had about an inch.

    ALSO READ | Atmospheric river floods California cities, brings rain, snow

    Colrain city administrator Kevin Fox stated he had no electrical energy or cell service at his residence and had gone to his workplace, regardless that city corridor was closed, so he might name his mom.

    “I have no idea who has power or who doesn’t,” Fox stated.

    Published On:

    Mar 16, 2023

  • Torrential downpour, robust winds torment California; extreme rain possible in the present day, evacuations ordered

    Authorities in California have ordered the evacuation of practically 25,000 individuals because the state is predicted to obtain extra rain in the present day. Several back-to-back storms have lashed California since December final yr.

    A automobile is caught in a sinkhole within the Chatsworth part of Los Angeles (Photo: AP)

    By India Today Web Desk: Torrential downpours and powerful winds lashed California on Tuesday, knocking out energy and turning metropolis streets into rivers. The newest Pacific storm compelled evacuation orders as terrain denuded by previous wildfires has created an elevated danger of flash floods and mudslides.

    With the soil already saturated, a lot of the harm has been concentrated across the metropolis of Santa Barbara, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Los Angeles, the place the steep foothills slope towards the Pacific Ocean.

    EVACUATIONS ORDERED

    Millions of individuals have been below flood warnings, and greater than 200,000 properties and companies have been with out energy due to heavy rains, lightning, hail and landslides.

    Officials ordered the evacuation of some 25,000 individuals, together with all the prosperous enclave of Montecito close to Santa Barbara, attributable to heightened flood and mudslide dangers.

    A automobile is trapped by mud and particles at Jameson Lane close to Highway 101 in Montecito, California (Photo: AP)

    The Montecito evacuation zone was amongst 17 California areas the place authorities fear the continued torrential downpours might unleash deadly cascades of mud, boulders and different particles on the hillsides.

    ALSO READ | What is atmospheric river that’s driving heavy rains, floods to US?

    CALIFORNIA WEATHER FORECAST

    According to the native climate report, heavy to extreme rainfall was anticipated throughout the state, particularly in southern California.

    The newest atmospheric river, which is a protracted plume of moisture stretching out into the Pacific that may drop staggering quantities of rain and snow.

    However, extra rain is predicted on Wednesday after which an extended storm system was predicted to final from Friday till January 17.

    The climate service issued a flood watch by Tuesday for all the San Francisco Bay Area, together with the Sacramento Valley and Monterey Bay.

    Debris from a mudslide blocks a avenue within the Laurel Canyon part of Los Angeles (Photo: AP)

    Areas hit by wildfires in recent times face the potential of mud and particles sliding down naked hillsides.

    Gusts as excessive as 88 miles per hour (141 kilometers per hour) have been recorded within the mountains north of Los Angeles and rainfall was anticipated to succeed in as much as half an inch (1.27 centimeters) per hour.

    Tornadoes that had been forecast by no means materialised.

    Experts say the rising frequency and depth of such storms, interspersed with excessive warmth and dry spells, are signs of local weather change. Though the rain and snow will assist replenish reservoirs and aquifers, a mere two weeks of precipitation won’t resolve 20 years of drought.

    ALSO READ | US winter storm wreaks havoc throughout Buffalo, California; horrific movies present a path of destruction

    SCENES OF DISTRAUGHT ACROSS CALIFORNIA

    The moist and blustery climate left California’s massive homeless inhabitants in a precarious scenario.

    Several distant spots have reported greater than a foot (30 cm) of rain together with the San Marcos Pass within the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara, the place greater than 17 inches (43 cm) have fallen.

    In the Rancho Oso space of the Santa Ynez Mountains, mud and particles throughout the roadway remoted about 400 individuals and 70 horses.

    A resident retains watch on Fredonia Drive in Studio City, California, the place a mudslide is obstructing the street (Photo: AP)

    Near the coast, the California Highway Patrol closed US 101, the principle freeway connecting northern and southern California, with no estimated time for reopening.

    Many communities have been flooded, together with Goleta, the place a person rode his paddleboard by the streets. Further south within the Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, two automobiles fell right into a sinkhole that opened beneath a street.

    Cars stay in a big sinkhole alongside Iverson Road in Chatsworth, California (Photo: AP)

    Floodwaters invaded the prepare station in downtown Los Angeles, submerging a pedestrian walkway. Rockfalls and landslides shut down roads and gushing runoff turned sections of freeways into waterways.

    Swollen rivers swamped properties and residents of small communities inundated with water and dust have been stranded.

    Floodwaters encompass properties on Thornton Rd. in Merced, California (Photo: AP)

    CALIFORNIA WEATHER AND FATALITIES

    At least 17 fatalities have been attributed to a number of back-to-back storms which have lashed California since December final yr.

    The deaths included a pickup truck driver and motorcyclist, who have been killed when a eucalyptus tree fell on them on Highway 99 within the San Joaquin Valley close to Visalia, the California Highway Patrol mentioned.

    Sinkholes swallowed vehicles and floodwaters swamped cities and swept away a small boy, as California was wracked by extra wild winter whereas the following system in a strong string of storms loomed on the horizon Tuesday.

    Authorities on Tuesday mentioned much less individuals died within the final two years of main wildfires in California than have died since New Year’s Day associated to the current climate.

    Further, the current climate situations in California have been described as ‘critical’ and ‘lethal’.

    ALSO READ | Bomb Cyclone continues to batter California as streets flip into rivers

    Published On:

    Jan 11, 2023