Los Angeles — Early Monday, the second atmospheric river in a row made its way slowly across California, flooding roads and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of people. The state was already bracing for another day of torrential rainfall when an unusual warning of hurricane-force winds was issued.
Throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, the storm flooded streets and knocked down trees and power lines on Sunday. Winds reached 96 kph (60 mph) in many places. Winds in the highlands reached 128 kph, or more than 80 mph.
Rescue workers rescued individuals from a homeless camp along a rising river and removed others from a trapped automobile in San Jose, just to the south, as floodwaters rose.
Officials in Southern California issued evacuation orders for canyons hit hard by recent wildfires and warned of catastrophic floods as the storm made its way there. The canyons are vulnerable to mud and debris flows. Santa Barbara County was hit hard by mudslides in 2018 due to intense storms, thus schools in the county were forced to cancel classes on Monday.
Down the coast, the city of Ventura was hit hard by violent gusts and torrential rain, according to Alexis Herrera, who was attempting to free his flooded automobile. "All the highways are under water in this area," Herrera stated in Spanish. "How am I going to relocate my vehicle?" By Sunday night, poweroutage.us reported that over 845,000 clients across the state were still without power.
The airport in San Francisco was delayed for hours due to the winds. According to FlightAware, 155 outbound flights were delayed and 69 had been canceled by 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. San Jose and Sacramento International Airports both experienced delays.
On Sunday, the ski resort at Palisades Tahoe, which is approximately 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, said that it was expecting the season's biggest snowfall to date, with 6 inches (15 centimeters) every hour, leading to a potential accumulation of two feet (60 centimeters). Drivers were warned not to venture onto mountain routes due to the heavy snowfall predicted on Monday in the Sierra Nevada.
The cyclone that moved into the state last week caused floods and welcomed snowfall in the mountains, but much of the state has been drying out since then. On Saturday, as the majority of California was under a wind, surf, or flood watch, the most recent storm—also known as a "Pineapple Express" due to its moisture plume that runs out across the Pacific to near Hawaii—arrived offshore in Northern California.
STAY TURNED FOR DEVELOPMENT