The wet conditions could spawn mudslides in these areas.
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Back-to-back storms in the Pacific are threatening to douse parts of the West for more than two weeks, thanks to an El Niño weather system that is tied with the strongest ever on record.
Residents Trina Gonzalez, left, and Todd Peterson stockpile sandbags to protect their homes from the rain in Glendora, Calif., Monday, Jan. 4, 2016. Persistent wet conditions could put some Los Angeles County communities at risk of flash flooding along with mud and debris flow… El Nino storms lined up in the Pacific, promising to drench parts of the West for more than two weeks and increasing fears of mudslides and flash floods in regions stripped bare by wildfires.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu). A man stands near crashing waves on the Pacifica Pier in Pacifica, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.
So the 61-year-old corporate auditor grabbed a sledgehammer and waded through the muck in his Monrovia backyard to knock a hole in a cement wall and let a mud flow skirt his house and run into a street.
A strong storm was forecast for Northern California, prompting officials to issue flash flood watches for several rural areas hardly hit by last year’s wildfires. Southern California is bracing for a series of storms expected to begin late Sunday that could last all week.
The California Highway Patrol estimated there were almost two dozen weather-related crashes on Wednesday during the morning drive.
Rising waters flooded a parking garage, damaging several cars at a San Diego Marriott.
Another less-powerful El Nino storm was right behind and expected to hit land Thursday.
However, Los Angeles County officials revealed that they have not received the requested funding to flush out debris from Los Angeles River. In Los Angeles, the fire department is ready with swift-water rescue teams, extra efforts to protect the homeless have been drawn out, and Mayor Eric Garcetti already encouraged his constituents to clean their gutters and be wary of any storm drain cloggers. “We’re at least on a good trajectory”.
Motorists in mountain areas were warned that blizzard conditions with wind gusts reaching 60 miles per hour were possible above 4,000 feet.
Muni spokesman Paul Rose says the agency stopped service on the cable auto lines Wednesday as a precaution and will restore service when the rain eases. “We’ve got to keep it going”, he said.
The National Weather Service said a record 1.42 inches of rain fell Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport as a previous storm passed through the region. Garcetti said police are prepared to temporarily detain homeless people illegally camped in and near the Los Angeles River who are in danger but refuse to move.
While the rain and mountain snows are welcome in the drought-stricken state, the quantity coming all at once is proving to be challenge.
But California’s drought is so severe that it will take years of a “steady parade of storms” to replenish aquifers and reservoirs, Mike Anderson, a California Department of Water Resources climatologist, explained to the AP.
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El Niño is the name given to a weather pattern associated with a sustained period of warming in the central and eastern tropical Pacific which can spark deadly and costly climate extremes.
