Several California counties have been declared in a state of emergency due to a storm that has caused flooding and mudslides. The latest death toll on Monday was three people. The rain is expected to continue into Tuesday or even Wednesday.
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A violent storm is causing dangerous flooding and hurricane-force winds in California on Monday, where at least three people have died and nearly half a million homes are without power.
Torrents of water are rushing over the south of the 'golden state', where it has been raining non-stop for more than 24 hours. In the north, where the rainfall was very violent, at least three people died on Sunday as a result of falling trees, according to local authorities.
“This is a major storm, with dangerous consequences that could potentially put lives at risk,” California Governor Gavin Newsom warned as he declared a state of emergency in eight of the state's 58 counties. These include Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Santa Barbara, all in the south.
Like the rest of the region, the city of Los Angeles is experiencing flooding capable of cutting off certain roads and intersections, as well as dangerous landslides. This has led authorities to issue evacuation orders for the Hollywood and Santa Monica Hills. In this wealthy area, landslides buried cars and caused a house to fall from its foundation, according to images from the local network KTLA.
“It sounded like thunder,” local resident Dave Christensen told the station. “When I went out to see what had happened, I saw a water heater where the house had been, and sure enough the house had slid down the slope onto the road,” he said.
Record rains
For Los Angeles, “yesterday was the tenth wettest day since we began recording precipitation levels in 1877,” Mayor Karen Bass stressed at a press conference on Monday. “Now more than ever, stay safe and off the roads. Don't leave your homes unless absolutely necessary,” she insisted.
Authorities are stepping up their cautionary messages as the rain is expected to continue into Tuesday or even Wednesday. It is falling on ground already saturated from an initial storm last week, increasing the risk of flooding as the ground is no longer able to absorb anything.
“The Los Angeles metropolitan area, as well as regions approximately 80 kilometers to the east and west, remain at high risk of severe flooding, debris flows and landslides for at least the next 24 hours,” it warned Monday. Daniel Swain, a specialist in extreme weather events at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Major power outages
More than 300,000 homes and businesses were still without power as of Monday afternoon, according to the specialized website PowerOutage.us. This especially affected the north of the state, where winds of more than 160 km/h were recorded in the San Francisco area on Sunday.
On Monday, dozens of flights to or from Los Angeles airport were canceled or delayed.
Like the previous storm, this one is due to an “atmospheric river”: a giant rain corridor that transforms water vapor stored in the tropics around Hawaii. In California, this particular phenomenon is nicknamed 'Pineapple Express'.
The West Coast of the United States suffered an abnormally wet winter last year, due to a series of closely spaced storms that produced near-record rainfall.
These catastrophes killed more than twenty people and caused extensive damage and power outages. But they allowed California to replenish part of its water reserves after several years of intense drought.
Historically, California is used to alternating periods of heat with intense rain, and it is always difficult to relate a specific meteorological phenomenon to climate change. However, scientists have been warning for years that global warming is altering the climate and increasing the frequency of extreme events, from storms to heat waves.
Adapted from its French original
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