The latest in a succession of powerful storms that have killed 12 people hit California again overnight with strong winds and heavy rain, leaving people without power in the Sacramento region on Monday.
In various locations around the state, there were flood warnings and evacuation orders as of late Sunday, and utility authorities reported that they were repairing wind – caused damage to electricity infrastructure.
The storm, which the National Weather Service called the latest in “a torrent of atmospheric rivers” to slam California, was expected to reach its peak strength over the state on Monday into Tuesday.
A strip of dense tropical moisture known as an atmospheric river can carry significant volumes of water vapor from the tropics, resulting in heavy rain, strong winds, and flooding.
On Sunday National Weather Service issued a warning: “The cumulative effect of successive rain events will lead to extra substantial flood consequences, including rapid water rises and mudslides, over northern and central California and areas of far western Nevada.” Throughout most of this week, isolated severe river flooding is anticipated, and record-high river levels are conceivable.
Additionally, NWS forecasts predict winds strong enough to topple additional trees and power lines and issued warnings about flash flooding, and debris flows in areas burned by fire.
Due to projected overnight flooding and winds of 50 to 60 mph, the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services upgraded an evacuation warning into an order for residents in the Wilton area late Sunday.
“Before the roads become impassable, residents must flee. Rising water could overflow onto nearby highways and block access to the region, so Sacramento County issued a warning to locals.
On Saturday, the woman was killed by a falling tree in Sacramento’s Southern Pacific/Richards area, according to a tweet from the city fire department, making two individuals who perished over the weekend due to storm-related incidents.
According to Mayor Fred Keeley, a falling tree in Santa Cruz, south of San Francisco, claimed the life of a 72-year-old man (D).
According to utility tracker PowerOutage.us, over 100,000 electricity customers were still without power early on Monday throughout California, with most outages reported in and around Sacramento County. This is a significant decrease from the more than 500,000 customers who were without power early on Sunday.
Early on Monday, Sacramento’s Municipal Utility District said on its website that its technicians were evaluating and fixing high wind damage and that outages would last throughout the day.
The Department of Transportation in California has also issued a warning, strongly advising citizens not to travel from Sunday night through Monday.
On Tuesday, when rainfall is forecast to be the heaviest and most extensive, the National Weather Service in San Diego issued flood watches for Orange County, the Inland Empire, and the San Bernardino/Riverside County Mountains. The NWS warned against driving across flooded roads in the San Francisco Bay area, predicting “severe wind and rain impacts.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom asked President Biden to declare a state of emergency for California on Monday, which opened the door for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help with the storms that have killed 12 people in the past 10 days. According to Newsom, who spoke at a news conference on Sunday, that figure exceeds the number of citizens killed by wildfires in the previous two years.
Recently, rain has been abundant throughout the state. On New Year’s Eve, an atmospheric river saturated Northern and Central California, cutting off electricity and leaving several individuals stranded in waterlogged cars.
San Francisco has received 11.16 inches of rain in just 13 days, the most precipitation the city has seen since 1871. The second – wettest calendar day since records have been kept began in 1849 and was December 31, when 5.46 inches of rain fell.
