People living in homeless encampments around the city scurried for cover as a storm of historic proportions dropped a record amount of rain on sections of Los Angeles on Monday, driving mud and stones down slopes lined with multimillion-dollar mansions.
In the state, over a million people lacked electricity.
This storm was the second in a few days to slam the state that was caused by an atmospheric river.
According to the National Weather Service, flash flood advisories and watches were in effect for almost the whole of Southern California, including the Los Angeles region, where between 5 and 10 inches (12.7 and 25.4 cm) of rain had already fallen and more was predicted.
Crews were rescuing people in several locations of Southern California from rapidly rushing water.
Two homeless persons who spent the night on a small island in the Santa Ana River near San Bernardino, roughly 55 miles (88.51 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, were among those who were rescued, according to the authorities.
According to San Bernardino County Fire Department Capt. Nathan Lopez, “they were cold and exhausted from a night out stranded on this little patch of dirt that was in the middle of the river.” Two cats and a dog were also spared.
At least two homes were damaged by rushing rivers near the Hollywood Hills that carried debris, boulders, and everyday items downhill as floodwaters ran through Studio City, according to local officials. There were sixteen persons evacuated.
The homes of Keki Mingus’ neighbors were damaged, and she remarked, “It looks like a river that’s been here for years.” “It is unlike anything I have ever seen.”
One thousand firefighters were battling 49 debris flows, 130 reports of flooding, six structure fires, and multiple car rescues, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Around midnight, Drake Livingston, a resident of the Beverly Crest area, received a warning from a friend about floods while he was watching a movie.
“We noticed a foot and a half of flowing water outside, and it began to seep through the doors,” Livingston recalled. The following morning, his automobile was discovered buried in several feet of mud.
Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles issued a driving ban and alerted citizens to the possibility of downed trees and power lines on flooded roads.
The National Weather Service said that Sunday in downtown Los Angeles saw a record 4.1 inches (10.41 cm) of rain, making it the wettest day on record. That is more precipitation than the region usually receives in a single month.
For the approximately 75,000 homeless persons in the city, shelters were expanding their bed capacity.
Tony Sanz slept in a local park, but as dawn approached and the floodwaters rose around his tent, he decided to seek higher ground.
He was holed up in a tarp-covered tent on the pavement outside a supermarket on Monday afternoon, saying, “Boy did it rain last night.” During a lull in the rain, he noticed the overcast skies and thought to himself, “Is that it? That should be it, I hope.
The meteorological service predicted that Southern California’s coastal and valley regions might see up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain over the next two days, with the foothills and mountains possibly seeing up to 14 inches (35 centimeters).
Following the dumping of around one million gallons of raw sewage into the Pacific, Los Angeles County health officials closed down the popular Cabrillo Beach, which is located close to the Port of Los Angeles.
At Union Station in downtown Los Angeles on Monday morning, commuters had to wade through several inches of floodwater in order to reach their trains. In most cases, public schools stayed open.
According to Sacramento County officials, a 41-year-old man passed away on Sunday in his Carmichael backyard after a tree fell on him.
The storm flooded streets and toppled trees and power lines all around the San Francisco Bay Area during the course of the weekend. Numerous individuals, including those in cars and those residing in homeless camps, needed to be rescued from the floodwaters.
Authorities in Yuba City, which is roughly 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of San Francisco, announced that they were looking into the death of a man who was discovered in his backyard on Sunday night under a large redwood tree. According to police on Facebook, the man may have been attempting to climb a ladder to get over the redwood when he was murdered because a neighbor heard the tree fall.
Emergency shelters were opened and a state of emergency was issued for the majority of Southern California’s coastal areas by Governor Gavin Newsom.
According to Brian Fisk of the Long Beach Fire Department, 19 people were saved on Sunday off the coast of Long Beach when the 40-foot sailboat they were riding in lost its mast due to strong winds.
Roads in the Sierra Nevada were blanketed in heavy snow, and drivers were advised to stay off them.
After last week’s initial atmospheric river-powered storm, a large portion of the state was still drying out. As they travel across land, atmospheric rivers—relatively small plumes of moisture that originate over an ocean—can cause deluges of rain.
Because both atmospheric rivers began close to Hawaii, they were dubbed the “Pineapple Express.”
The United States’ West Coast has seen 46 atmospheric rivers make ashore since last winter, ending a multi-year drought in the region, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. There were three categories: outstanding, extreme, and strong.