People living in high-risk coastal areas of California have been ordered to leave their homes as another violent storm batters the state.
About 100,000 people are in San Francisco The Bay Area (76,000 people) and the Central Coast (19,000 people) have lost power due to recent storms, and flights and school classes have been cancelled.
california Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency because of an upcoming weather front that is expected to bring heavy rain, snow and flooding, a few days after another severe storm, according to NBC.
People walk around a tree that fell during a storm in downtown Sacramento
Mandatory evacuation orders were in effect for several cities in Northern California, including Richmond in the Bay Area and Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, NBC added.
this Los Angeles The area was one of nine that were placed under a flood watch overnight, while highways were closed and people were asked to stay off Northern California roads.
The storm is expected to drop as much as 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) of rain in hilly areas that have been saturated for the past month.
“We expect this to be potentially one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to make landfall in California over the past five years,” said Nancy Ward, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Among the towns ordered to evacuate, Montecito is home to many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and duke with duchess of sussex.
Five years ago, huge boulders, mud and debris swept down the mountain, destroying more than 100 homes and killing 23 people.
Workers clear a fallen tree that snapped some power lines next to a school in Bellavista, Oakland
Car stuck in flooded underpass in Auckland
Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor said: “What we’re talking about here is a lot of water coming down a hilltop, into creeks and streams, and as it goes down, it picks up momentum, and that’s what the initial danger was. “
Parts of Northern California were battered by howling winds and pictures were released of uprooted trees, power lines and submerged vehicles.
A partially submerged boathouse on the Sacramento River in West Sacramento
In Southern California, the storm is expected to peak overnight, with Santa Barbara and Ventura counties likely to see the heaviest rainfall, forecasters said.
It was one of three so-called atmospheric river storms that reached drought-affected status last week.
Residents in Santa Barbara County were ordered to make the first evacuations of three recent wildfires amid forecasts that overnight heavy rain could cause widespread flooding and trigger mudslides.
County officials did not have exact numbers on how many people were under evacuation orders, but Susan Klein-Rothschild, a spokeswoman for the county’s emergency operations center, estimated hundreds.