California faces more flooding with Los Angeles evacuations extended
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A car lies partially buried, as heavy rains fall due to an atmospheric river, in Wrightwood, California, on Dec 26.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LOS ANGELES - California is facing another day of heavy rain
A final system bringing bands of moderate to heavy rain will move across the state on Dec 26, threatening flash floods in areas from Oxnard to Los Angeles, according to the National Weather Service. Southern California may also see strong winds and thunderstorms near the coast.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning from Malibu to West Hollywood through noon local time on Dec 26. Los Angeles County extended evacuation orders for areas through 1pm local time, the sheriff’s office posted. More than 50,000 homes and businesses in the state were without power Dec 26 morning, mostly in Northern California, according to PowerOutage.us.
The Los Angeles Fire Department deployed a helicopter to rescue a woman swept into a stormwater wash on Dec 26.
Travel has been hobbled during the Christmas holiday with flight delays and waterlogged freeways. Flooding, downed trees, storm damage, debris and mud slides have led to dozens of road closures in the LA area alone, county data show, with further closures and disruptions reported throughout the state.
Several days of deluge have impacted LA areas that were devastated by massive wildfires roughly a year ago. The charred off vegetation makes the land resistant to soaking up the water, increasing the vulnerability toward landslides, mudslides and power outages. It’s a risk that will persist whenever especially heavy rains strike Southern California until the soil recovers and vegetation grows back.
“Those soils are still hydrophobic, which means that rain just runs off like it’s hitting hard dirt or concrete,” Mr Scott Kleebauer, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center, said this week. “There are burn scars that have lasted for four or five years before you see any improvement.”
The heaviest precipitation hit mountain areas of the Golden State, from the San Gabriel Mountains in the south to the Sierra Nevadas to the north. More than 15cm of rain soaked Mount Baldy and Mount San Antonio east of Los Angeles, triggering mudslides in Wrightwood, where the 2024 Bridge Fire blackened 22,662 ha.
Heavy machinery clears a section of the 5 Freeway that was closed, as heavy rains fall due to an atmospheric river, in the Sun Valley area, Los Angeles, California.
PHOTO: REUTERS
At Mammoth Mountain ski resort, the forecast called for 30cm to 45cm of fresh snow amid fierce winds gusting as high as 97kph. Heavenly Lake Tahoe ski resort reported 79cm of fresh snow in the last 48 hours, with as much as 13cm more forecast for Dec 26.
In the mountains, the weather service has warned of “near white out conditions at times” that will make travel dangerous and likely cause delays and road closures.
The historic rains started ravaging California earlier this week, with the storms killing at least three people.
More than 8cm of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles over the three days through Dec 26 morning. The weather service reported on Dec 25, when storm had dumped 6.6cm downtown, that the Christmas Eve-Christmas Day holiday total had the most rain since 1971 and ranked as the fourth wettest two-day holiday period for downtown in records dating to 1877.
The heavy precipitation is the result of massive Pacific storms known as atmospheric rivers.
Chairs and a table stand partially buried inside a damaged house, as heavy rains fall due to an atmospheric river, in Wrightwood, California, on Dec 26.
PHOTO: REUTERS
After Dec 26’s last band of storms, conditions are forecast to begin easing.
“Showers will taper off by later this afternoon and end overnight,” according to a forecast issued on Dec 26 by the National Weather Service. BLOOMBERG
