Drone video of flooded Felton in Santa Cruz County
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At least 14 people have died and a five-year-old boy remains missing as a series of extreme storms continue to batter California.
More lives have now been lost from the storms, which began to batter the state last week, than have been caused by two years of wildfires.
Over the past two days, more than a foot of rain has fallen in parts of the state, causing dangerous flash flooding and leaving more than 200,000 homes without power as of Tuesday morning.
About 22 million people in California and parts of Oregon are under a flood warning as the atmospheric river looks set to continue dumping heavy rainfall across the region.
The extreme weather put the battered town of Montecito under an evacuation order and all of San Francisco was warned of flash flooding on Tuesday.
As conditions eased slightly, the search resumed Tuesday for a 5-year-old boy who was swept away when his mother’s truck got stuck in a creek near Paso Robles.
More severe weather is expected throughout the week, increasing the potential for flooding, rising rivers and mudslides on already saturated soils.
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On Monday, officials ordered the evacuation of about 25,000 people, including the entire tributary enclave of Montecito near Santa Barbara, due to increased risks of flooding and mudslides. The 4,000 people in Planada, a community in central California, were ordered to evacuate their homes by the county sheriff’s office on Tuesday morning.
The Montecito evacuation zone is among 17 regions in California where authorities fear the ongoing torrential downpours could trigger deadly falls of mud, rocks and other debris on hillsides.
In southeastern Ventura County, crews worked overnight to rescue drivers stuck in a three-foot mudflow along State Highway 126, the California Highway Patrol said.
Oliver O’Connell January 11, 2023 4:15 am
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A San Francisco man is going viral for spraying a homeless person’s house during the storm
San Francisco may be facing heavy rain, but that didn’t stop a business owner in the city’s financial district from dousing a homeless person with a hose Monday.
In a clip that later went viral locally, the man can be seen saying, “Move,” as he attacks the individual, who sits on the sidewalk wrapped in blankets.
As the San Francisco Standard reports, the city is short of the thousands of shelter beds needed to house those on its streets as heavy rains pour into the Bay Area.
Josh Marcus January 11, 2023 3:00 am
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Will California’s epic storms be enough to end the state’s drought?
The intense weather has been often catastrophic on the ground, causing flooding, downed trees and mudslides that have killed at least 16 people and left an estimated 224,000 people in the state without power, the Washington Post. reports.
For all the destruction it has caused, will the atmospheric river end California’s historic drought? the worst in the history of the state? Not quite, according to scientists.
Read our full report to understand why.
Josh Marcus January 11, 2023 02:00 am
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Watch: CHP Captures Large Landslide in Fresno County
Oliver O’Connell January 11, 2023 1:45 am
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More than 22 million in California face a flood warning
With heavy rain comes heavy flooding.
About 22 million people in California and parts of Oregon are under a flood warning as the atmospheric river looks set to continue dumping heavy rainfall across the region.
“We’ve seen tons of reports of mudslides, rocks and boulders coming down the roads,” Accuweather senior meteorologist Mike Doll told TIME on Tuesday.
Josh Marcus January 11, 2023 1:30 am
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Frequency and intensity of storms symptom of climate change
Experts say the increasing frequency and intensity of these storms, interspersed with extreme heat and dry spells, are symptoms of climate change. While rain and snow will help replenish reservoirs and aquifers, just two weeks of precipitation won’t solve two decades of drought. Meanwhile, land stripped from past wildfires has created a greater risk of flash floods and mudslides.
Torrential rains, along with heavy snowfall in mountain areas, follow another “atmospheric river” of dense moisture heading into California from the tropical Pacific, driven by expanding low-pressure systems churning up on the high seas
Oliver O’Connell January 11, 2023 1:15 am
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The small California town hasn’t had full power in nearly a week
Gualala, a picturesque coastal town north of the San Francisco Bay Area, has been without full power for nearly a week as intense storms battered the region, bringing down numerous trees and power poles.
As of Tuesday afternoon, about half of the city’s 2,000 people were still without power, although utility provider PG&E said power would be restored by 10 p.m. local time on this evening, reports the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Josh Marcus January 11, 2023 1:00 am
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Damage from the California storms will cause “several billions” of dollars
Recent storms have brought extreme weather to nearly every part of California, including rain, snow, hail, thunder and storm surges, which have led to flooding, downed power lines and landslides.
All this damage could add up.
“This is likely to be at least several billion dollars,” Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, told the New York Times on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, it will join the club of billion dollar disasters.”
Here’s our Louise Boyle report on the worst climate disasters of 2022. Read on to see where California’s latest storms stack up.
Josh Marcus January 11, 2023 12:45 AM
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Video: California storms ‘dump’ snow on Sierra Nevada mountains
The atmospheric river that pours water through California has reached the peaks of the high Sierra Nevada mountains.
The University of California’s Central Sierra Snow Lab reported Tuesday that it had seen more than 9 feet of snow in the past 24 hours, 172 percent of average precipitation.
The snow piled up so high it reached the station’s second-floor windows, the lab posted on Twitter.
Josh Marcus January 11, 2023 12:30 AM
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Watch: Montecito flooded by water
Prince Harry and Meghan’s California neighborhood flooded by water
Oliver O’Connell January 11, 2023 12:15 AM