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At least 17 people have been killed in California as a relentless string of storms batter the state, turning rivers into gushing flood zones and forcing thousands of people to evacuate from towns with histories of deadly mudslides.
A catastrophic barrage of storms has caused destruction since late December, with the latest hitting in recent days and more storms on the horizon. Heavy rainfall and winds continued on Tuesday, putting entire communities under flood warnings and evacuation orders, knocking out power to tens of thousands and causing hillsides to collapse.
The entire seaside community of Montecito – home to Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities – was ordered to flee on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave.
State officials confirmed the death toll in a briefing on Tuesday afternoon with the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, saying that figure was “likely to grow”.
At least 17 people have died from storms that began late last month, said Wade Crowfoot, the California natural resources secretary. The deaths included a pickup truck driver and motorcyclist killed on Tuesday morning when a eucalyptus tree fell on them on Highway 99 in the San Joaquin Valley near Visalia, the California highway patrol said.
Elsewhere, a woman died after her vehicle was caught in floodwater in San Luis Obispo on Monday, according to local media reports. On the central coast, a five-year-old boy vanished into the floodwaters after he was swept out of a stranded car.
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What’s causing the California deluge?
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What’s causing the California deluge?
A short glossary of the storms and their elements lashing the state, and how the weather wound up unleashing torrential rain on the previously parched region.
Atmospheric river
Atmospheric rivers are long streams of moisture, defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as “rivers in the sky“. They transport water vapor from the tropics, after warm water evaporates off the Pacific. Moving with weather systems, ARs carry enough water to rival the average flow at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi River, and can unleash that water wherever they make landfall.
ARs are an incredibly important part of California’s climate, delivering roughly half of the state’s annual precipitation. But they can also be incredibly destructive, often accompanied by strong winds. Rated on a scale of one to five, lighter ARs from one to three are considered more beneficial, filling reservoirs and replenishing desiccated landscapes. Gabrielle Canon
Bomb cyclone Bomb cyclones are low-pressure storm systems that help create atmospheric rivers, eg long streams of moisture in the air. Unlike hurricanes or other storms that are strongest at their center, bomb cyclones can generate the worst weather at their edges.
Bomb cyclones are borne out of “bombogenesis,” a term meteorologists use to measure drops in pressure (that correlate with strengthening) at different latitudes. Bombogenesis occurs when warm air and cold air collide. These so-called “extra-tropical cyclones” can form atmospheric rivers, but they can also be boosted by them.
“It is like a feedback loop,” said Dr Marty Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes and a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “When you have an AR already present, the AR can supercharge the new cyclone, which can then strengthen the AR.” These two types of systems have come together to create the series of storms hitting California over the last few weeks. Gabrielle Canon
In Sacramento, the state capital, local residents and family members were mourning the deaths of two unhoused people who were killed over the weekend when trees fell onto the tents where they were sleeping. Relatives and friends said their deaths highlighted the needs for thousands of more beds in local warming centers to protect unhoused residents during the coming storms, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The latest storm, which began on Monday, dumped more than a foot of rain at higher elevations in central and southern California and buried Sierra Nevada ski resorts in more than 5ft (1.5 meters) of snow. Rockfalls and mudslides shut down roads, and gushing runoff turned sections of freeways into waterways.
In Santa Barbara, where schools and public transit systems were shut down in response to the intense weather, a local news station interviewed a man kayaking down a city block.
Sheriff’s deputies were out plying flooded roads in armored high-clearance BearCat Swat vehicles to rescue residents trapped by high water, said Raquel Zick, a Santa Barbara county sheriff’s spokesperson, to Reuters.
In Ventura county, a highway was temporarily closed on Monday night after multiple vehicles, including a semi truck, became stuck in the mud and debris on the road, leaving dozens of commuters trapped behind them, KTLA reported.
As the rainstorm overwhelmed sewers and sewage treatment plants in the Bay Area, a local official warned: “Don’t jump in puddles. Especially in San Francisco – you want to be careful that there (could be) sewage in that,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Residents of the small town of Planada, a community of 4,000 people in central California, started their Tuesday morning with an order to evacuate their homes from the county sheriff’s office, which said deputies “are going door to door to help residents evacuate”, and urged residents to meet at the local Dollar General store, where buses were ready to take them to a shelter.
After a brief respite, another storm was expected to barrel into the state beginning on Wednesday, adding to the misery and further saturating areas already at risk of flooding and debris flows.
The death toll from the storms that began last week climbed to 16 on Tuesday, after two motorists were killed in a crash in central California caused by a tree struck by lightning that then fell on the road, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The storms threatened coastal and riverside towns and left nearly 190,000 homes and businesses without power by late Tuesday morning, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The weather service issued a flood watch through Tuesday for the entire San Francisco Bay Area, along with Sacramento Valley and Monterey Bay. Areas hit by wildfires in recent years faced the possibility of mud and debris sliding off denuded hillsides that have yet to fully recover their protective layer of vegetation.
California state highway authorities said late Monday night that parts of US and state highways were closed because of flooding, mud or rockslides, heavy snow or car spinouts and truck crashes.
Evacuation orders were issued in Santa Cruz county for about 32,000 residents living near rain-swollen rivers and creeks. The San Lorenzo River was declared at flood stage and drone footage showed numerous homes sitting in muddy brown water, the top halves of autos peeking out.
A five-year-old boy vanished in floodwaters on Monday on the central coast. The boy’s mother was driving a truck when it became stranded near Paso Robles. Bystanders managed to pull her free but the boy was swept out of the truck and carried away, probably into a river, said Tom Swanson, assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo county fire department.
A roughly seven-hour search for the missing boy turned up only his shoe before officials called it off as water levels were too dangerous for divers, officials said.
About 130 miles (209km) to the south, about 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Santa Barbara county. County officials ordered 20 homes evacuated in the area of Orcutt after flooding and a sinkhole damaged up to 15 homes.
Jamie McLeod’s property was under the Montecito evacuation order, but she said there was no way for her to “get off the mountain” with a rushing creek on one side and a mudslide on the other. The 60-year-old owner of the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary said one of her employees came to make a weekly food delivery and also became stuck.
McLeod said she feels fortunate because her home sits on high ground and the power is still on. But she tires of the frequent evacuation orders since the huge wildfire followed by the deadly landslide five years ago.
“It is not easy to relocate,” McLeod said. “I totally love it, except in catastrophe.”
Ellen DeGeneres shared an Instagram video of herself standing in front of a raging creek near the Montecito home where she lives with her wife, actor Portia de Rossi. She said in the post that they were told to shelter in place because they are on high ground.
“This is crazy,” the talkshow host, wearing a hoodie and raincoat, says in the video.
Some miles down the coast another town, La Conchita in Ventura county, was ordered evacuated. A mudslide killed 10 people there in 2005.
In Ventura county, the Ventura River reached its highest level on record at more than 25ft (8 meters) on Monday. Firefighters using helicopters rescued more than a dozen people trapped on an island in the surging waters.
The storm also washed 3ft of mud and rock on to State Highway 126, stranding a long line cars and big-rig trucks. Crews worked into the night to pull them free.
In Los Angeles, a sinkhole swallowed two cars in the Chatsworth area on Monday night. Two people escaped by themselves and firefighters rescued two others who had minor injuries, authorities said.
A small mudslide also affected a few homes in the Hollywood Hills on Monday, CBS News reported.
The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” – long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific that can drop staggering amounts of rain and snow.
Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration on Monday to support storm response and relief efforts in more than a dozen counties.
Much of California remains in severe to extreme drought, though the storms have helped fill depleted reservoirs.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
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