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One dead, 5 years old goes missing as ‘tornado parade’ hits California


Cars are submerged in flood water after heavy rain moves through the area on January 9, 2023 in Windsor, California.

Justin Sullivan | beautiful pictures

One dead, a 5-year-old baby is missing and more than 7 million people in the Los Angeles area were facing flash flood warnings Monday as a “parade of tornadoes” made landfall in California.

In Avila Beach, about 180 miles north of Los Angeles, one person was killed when a vehicle was flooded with water, said Anita Konopa, an official with the San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services. Another agency official, Scott Jalbert, initially said two people were dead.

In the northern part of the county, near Paso Robles, floodwaters flooded a vehicle driving through a low creek bed, Jalbert said. He said an adult was rescued but a child was swept away.

Tony Coppola, a spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, said a team from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office called off the search Monday afternoon because of “excessive” weather conditions.

“We’re seeing our creeks and rivers flowing as if they hadn’t flowed in decades,” Jalbert said. “So they’re pretty monstrous.”

In Southern California, a large swath of Southern California including Los Angeles, Malibu, El Monte and Santa Clarita has been under flash flood warnings until midnight. The National Weather Service said.

The area, with a population of 7.7 million, includes 1,521 schools and 91 hospitals, the service said.

In Santa Barbara County, all residents in the Montecito community were ordered to evacuate Monday afternoon “based on continued high rainfall with no indication that that will change before nightfall.” , said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown. He said heavy rainfall in the area, home to 10,000 people, has flooded roads and creeks.

The flood is coming 5 years after the heavy rain tore off the “burn scar” in Montecito killed nearly two dozen people.

The National Weather Service warned of two “big waves” of heavy rain and mountain snow in rapid succession, with more tornadoes heading towards the state.

Two of the “powerful and steamy parade of tornadoes” are “targeting California directly,” it said.

total rainfall

As of Monday afternoon, more than 10 inches of rain had fallen in the previous 24 hours in Bonny Doon, just north of Santa Cruz, According to the National Weather Service.

Three to five inches have been recorded across a wide swath of the Central and Northern California coasts, from Hearst Castle in San Luis Obispo County to Redwood City, just south of San Francisco, the agency said.

In Southern California, downtown Los Angeles recorded just over an inch of rain in the past 48 hours, by agency. Nordhoff Ridge, north of Ojai, saw 14 inches.

A second wave is expected on Tuesday, resulting in slightly fewer numbers, but affecting areas further south into Southern California, it said.

The cumulative impact of rainfall is expected to cause flooding, including “rapid water surge, landslides and the potential for major river flooding”, the agency warned.

The California Highway Patrol in Santa Cruz warned of multiple road closures Monday, including a landslide that blocked Highway 17 south of Glenwood Drive.

The Montrose Search and Rescue Team worked with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office throughout the night to rescue a group of hikers trapped between two rising rivers Sunday night. Five children and three adults were taken to safety.

Power line problems and weather prevented a helicopter rescue, but two members of the sheriff’s office were able to reach the canyon to assist hikers out.

“Following several recent tragic rehabilitations, this eight-person rescue comes at the perfect time, reminding us why we volunteered to do this,” said Montrose Rescue Team. said on Instagram Monday.

On Monday, seven people were rescued from a river in Ventura County, a spokesman for the county fire department said. Video published by the agency shows a man climbing a ladder to the roof.

In Santa Cruz County, where officials issue an evacuation order for areas along the San Lorenzo River and several creeks, video posted by county on Monday shows a flooded river in the city center.

More pictures of the district shows landslide, fallen trees and flooded road.

Deadly winter weather

The warnings come as California continues to face deadly severe weather. At least six people have been killed since New Year’s weekend, including a toddler who died after a redwood tree fell and crushed a mobile home in Northern California.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Los Angeles, speak last week “brought a verifiable onslaught of positive and often damaging weather conditions to the northern half of the state.”

As of Monday afternoon, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were still without power. More than half of those blackouts were in two counties – Sacramento and San Luis Obispo, according to PowerOutage.us.

California utility PG&E said at a news conference that it has been preparing for storms since before New Year’s Eve and is working to get power back to customers. Adam Wright, chief executive officer of PG&E, calls this their biggest response to bad weather to date.

But it can take time to assess and repair the damage caused by “historic storm chains”, Mr. Wright warned.

Governor Gavin Newsom announced a state of emergency Wednesday as California suffered heavy rain and snow, causing flooding across the state. This declaration allows local jurisdictions and state agencies to respond more quickly to changes in weather.

Climate change has caused extreme rainfall in California to double, with extreme weather predicted to produce 200% to 400% of surface runoff, rainwater that cannot be absorbed by the soil, by the end of the century , according to research by UCLA environmental and sustainability department.

In the coming days, the Sierra Nevada is expected to see more than 6 feet of snow at higher elevations before snow falls Wednesday morning, according to the weather service.

The agency said extreme snow and heavy snowfall rates in the higher-terrain areas of the Sierra Nevada are expected to make travel very dangerous and sometimes impossible. time to warn drivers to prepare for the possibility of road closures.

Accumulating snow can also increase the risk of avalanches and stress infrastructure.

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