AFP, published on Saturday, January 14, 2023 at 23:05
A new storm with heavy rains swept across California on Saturday, causing major flooding, after three weeks of unprecedented rainfall that has killed at least 19 people.
A large wave of rain — and snow in the mountains — swept through many areas of the United States’ most populous state on Saturday, whose soils are already saturated with water.
Another low-pressure system was expected to come out of the Pacific during the day Saturday, showering the coast, valleys and then mountains of California, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned.
Power lines were hit while fields and roads were flooded.
“It’s not over yet,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned at a news conference, arguing that even if the rains decrease in intensity, the soils are soggy and the risk of flooding therefore remains important.
Aware of the fatigue among Californians after several weeks of downpours, he said, “I urge all of us to maintain our vigilance and common sense for the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Gavin Newsom said he was convinced Joe Biden would soon sign a disaster declaration: “That’s the intention of the American president,” he said.
In the Salinas region, a city of 160,000 people south of San Francisco where the river of the same name inundated its bed, the flood affected the valley’s agricultural corners but spared urban areas, an AFP journalist noted Saturday morning.
– “Avoid the worst” –
In Spreckles, a housing development a few hundred yards from the river, most residents had not been evacuated this week despite warnings from authorities.
“It seems as if we prevented the worst from happening,” breathes Robert Zagajeski while walking his dog in the light rain. According to forecasters, the flow should recede from Saturday.
Like the rest of California, Salinas, home of John Steinbeck, whose Nobel Prize in Literature was largely inspired to write his “Grapes of Wrath,” continues the deluge.
“We need as much rain as possible, but the farmers can’t do anything with such wet fields,” Zagajeski sighs.
A few miles away, Erick Diaz watches the flooded fields from his humble log home not far from the river. Despite an evacuation order for 17,000 people in the region, he too is staying at home.
“I have nowhere to go and so far so good,” said the 30-year-old farm worker.
“The region has been hit hard by drought in recent years,” Manuel Paris, a 58-year-old farm worker, told AFP, impressed by the river flowing at full speed below. “It’s been so long, we’re not used to having so much rain.”
On Monday, a public holiday in the US, a new “atmospheric flow”, a narrow band in the atmosphere that transports huge amounts of moisture from the tropics, is expected. It will bring “new waves of extreme precipitation,” the NWS warns.
– a meter of snow –
In the mountains, this precipitation leads to heavy snowfall, with more than a meter expected in the Sierra Nevada over the weekend, the authorities warn of the danger of avalanches and advise against any movement.
At least 19 people have died since the series of storms began. In particular, drivers were found in their cars trapped by the waves, people were hit by falling trees, a couple were killed by a landslide and bodies were washed away by the floods.
California is used to extreme weather conditions, and winter storms are a daily occurrence. Such an order is, on the other hand, unusual.
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.
However, according to experts, the torrential rains of the past few weeks will not be enough to end the drought that has hit the western American country hard for two decades.