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| A home buried in mud and rocks after a debris flow in Wrightwood, California Widespread storms and atmospheric rivers have plagued California for more than a week now |
The storms targeting southern California over the Christmas holiday have so far claimed at least three lives.
Another person died in San Diego when a large tree branch fell on him, reported television station KGTV. At least 90 trees fell across the city of San Diego.
Videos are at the bottom of this post.
A number of people were plucked from flooded cars on streets and highway throughout southern California.
One of the hardest hit areas is the community of Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains, where several homes were buried under several feet of mud, notes KTLA.
Video showed some houses with four feet of rocks and mud inside them. Cars were buried halfway up their windows Two people died and six others were injured on a wet freeway..
Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday received 2.53 inches of rain, which is a bit more than what normally falls in the entire month of December. Other totals from just December 24 include 3.96 in Woodland Hills and 3.39 in Burbank.
Before the storms hit the L.A area, the atmospheric rivers targeted northern California. Redding, California was probably the hardest hit. The city had 5.3 inches of rain from December 16 to 22, with much more in the higher elevations nearby.
A 74-year old man died when he drove around barricades and got swept up in the flooding.
High winds also tore through the Golden State.
Santa Cruz Harbor reported a gust to 91 mph. Several boats were not surprisingly damaged. Likely not a tornado, say NWS. Pablo Point, about 20 miles northwest of San Francisco reported a gust to 108 mph.
About 125,000 people lost power in central and northern California over the Christmas holiday.
Heavy snow has been falling in the Sierra Nevada range, with some places clocking in with several feet of snow.
Interstate 80 through Donner Summit was impassable at times over the holiday as vehicles got stuck, crashed or spun out.
Rain continues in southern California today, though it's not coming down as heavily as it did Wednesday and Thursday. But now that the ground is sodden from the storms, so the somewhat lighter rain could really set off more debris flows and mudslides. Los Angeles itself could get another one to two inches of rain today. The mountains could get another three inches.
After that, practically no rain is expected in California until later Wednesday or Thursday.
Videos:
A scary tour of flooded Redding, California on December 21. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.
Next video shows a motorist stupidly driving into fast flowing water and getting swept away. So what does the next car do when they see this? Drive into the fast flowing water and get swept away. People are dumb. They were both eventually rescued, by the way. This was in Palmdale, California. Click on this link to view, as always, or if you see the image below, click on that.
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