AFP, published Wednesday, January 11, 2023 at 11:57 am
A large cyclone is expected to hit California on Wednesday, bringing up to 18 inches of rain, weather services warned, as tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate after consecutive storms had already killed at least 17 people.
The torrential rains of the past few days on already waterlogged soils have caused major power outages, numerous floods, uprooted many trees and cut off major roads, with the floods sometimes taking motorists with them.
A search for a five-year-old boy who was swept away Monday in Paso Robles, a small town halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, has been halted because of the dangers to divers in the stormy waters, the Fox News channel said , citing a San Luis Obispo County official.
Around 66,000 homes and businesses in the most populous state in the United States were without power as of Wednesday morning, according to specialist website PowerOutage.us.
The expected new storm will hit northern California and is expected to bring heavy snowfall to the Sierra Nevada mountains, according to the US National Weather Service (NWS).
According to NWS, California is currently experiencing “an endless onslaught of atmospheric flows” not seen since 2005. Formed by water vapor from the tropics and then pouring to waterspouts on the west coast of the United States, these “rivers of heaven” are seldom so common.
– Huge Cyclone –
“A massive cyclone off the west coast will bring heavy rains and gusty winds again (Wednesday), this time to northern California,” the NWS wrote in its latest advisory.
The inclement weather will not be confined to California as the system responsible for Tuesday’s rains continues to make its way across the country and is expected to bring thunderstorms to the central and southern regions, the NWS adds.
At least 34,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday.
“We’re not at the end of our troubles yet. We expect the storms to continue at least until January 18,” the governor told reporters. “Right now we have 17 confirmed deaths. I tragically state this because only those deaths are confirmed.”
These deaths are “more than the forest fires of the last two years,” he emphasized.
North of Los Angeles near Santa Barbara, the coastal community of Montecito, a celebrity hangout where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle live, was under an evacuation order Monday through Tuesday after noon.
This enclave, where actress Jennifer Aniston and TV presenter Oprah Winfrey own luxurious mansions, focuses on extreme climate phenomena experienced by California, which has been hit hard by drought for two decades.
– drought –
Five years ago, a massive fire devastated the mountains around Montecito. As a result, the lack of vegetation makes it very prone to landslides. In January 2018, mudslides caused by heavy rains killed 23 people.
“Because the mountains are right there, it quickly becomes dangerous when it rains (…),” said Daniel DeMuyer, a resident of the city, where several streets and some houses were completely flooded, the AFP news agency. “It’s the price you have to pay to live in such a beautiful place, when it rains like that it does a lot of damage.”
Other regions have been the subject of official evacuation orders, such as in Santa Cruz County near San Francisco, where a pier was destroyed last week.
While it is difficult to establish a direct link between these storm series and climate change, scientists regularly state that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
Last week’s storm had already knocked out power to tens of thousands of people, causing severe flooding and triggering landslides. It had come just days after another torrential downpour on New Year’s Eve.
The extraordinary rainfall of the last few days has already exceeded the average annual precipitation in several regions.
However, they will not be enough to replenish California’s water reserves. Experts say several winters with above-average rainfall would be needed to compensate for the drought of recent years.