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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lois Beckett (now) and Dani Anguiano (earlier)

Rain to worsen in LA as hundreds of thousands remain without power in California – as it happened

California Gavin Newsom Los Angeles Santa Barbara the National Weather Service UC Berkeley

Evening summary

We are wrapping up live coverage of the storms across California for today. Here’s an updated summary of key events:

  • All of Los Angeles county, which is home to nearly 10 million people, remains under a flood advisory until 9 pm tonight, as “a continuous stream of moderate/heavy rain” moves into the region. The rain is expected to continue battering southern California into Tuesday.

  • Downtown LA had seen more than seven inches of rain in the past three days, while other neighborhoods, including Bel Air, had seen nearly 12 inches, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The NWS said that flash flooding and threat of mudslides have created “a particularly dangerous situation”.

  • The intense weather has triggered mud and debris flows in the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica mountains. Firefighters reported helping evacuate several homes in multiple neighborhoods after mud, rocks and trees flowed into residences.

  • Some local activists in Los Angeles, where an estimated 50,000 people live in tents, vehicles, and improvised encampments, said they were struggling to find space in the city’s shelter system for people exposed to the brutal weather on the city’s streets.

  • Across California, early 300,000 homes and businesses remain without power and more than one million people are likely being impacted by the outages. The outages have largely been concentrated in northern California, which was hit hard by storms on Sunday.

  • Authorities are investigating at least three deaths in northern California that appear to be related to the extreme weather. A man in Yuba City was found dead under a tree, a person in Santa Cruz county died after a tree fell onto their residence, and a 42-year-old man in Carmichael, near Sacramento, also died after a tree fell on him Sunday.

  • In southern California, Los Angeles public schools remained opened despite the weather, and Disneyland also welcomed visitors, though it once again closed earlier than usual in the evening.

Updated

The photos are dramatic. But sometimes the LA River just looks like that.

For most of the day, one of the leading images on the Guardian’s home page has been the brown, choppy waters of the Los Angeles river, seemingly about to fully swallow the trunks of nearby trees.

Photos and footage of the river have been splashed across multiple news sites: a video of the rushing waters, flowing high up on the river’s concrete banks, has been at the top of the New York Times for most of the day. I saw “LA River” trending on Twitter/X.

But as someone who once lived next to the river, I must tell you: when it’s raining, this is pretty much what the LA river is supposed to look like.

Those trees drowning in the river? A lot of them are willows and cottonwoods, floodplain plants that spread their seeds through floodwater, Jon Christensen of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability told me.

“As long as the river doesn’t go over its banks and flood the surrounding neighborhoods, this is the modern LA River doing its job,” Christensen said.

A spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles confirmed on Monday afternoon that “the Los Angeles River is currently operating as it was intended,” that local dams are performing “without incident”, and that current water levels “are trending downward”, meaning the risk of flooding is also going down.

Updated

Four missing people located after avalanche hits ski resort outside Los Vegas

The Las Vegas police said they had located four people who had been reported missing after an avalanche hit a ski resort in Nevada.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the avalanche had occurred at the Lee Canyon ski resort, 50 miles from Las Vegas, and that it was connected to the west coast storms that have brought heavy rains to coastal areas, and snow to more mountainous regions.

Updated

More than 300,000 in California still without power

Earlier today, more than 500,000 households and businesses were still without power in California, according to poweroutage.us. By 3.30pm PST, that number had fallen to nearly 332,000 households and businesses, many of them concentrated in northern California. There were high numbers of outages in Mendocino and Sonoma counties, north of San Francisco, as well as south of San Francisco, in the Silicon Valley counties of Santa Clara and San Mateo.

Updated

NWS: While peak flood risk has declined in LA, flood advisories have been extended

“A continuous stream of moderate/heavy rain will be moving into LA county,” the National Weather Service is advising, resulting in an extension of the local flood advisory, and warnings of “widespread flooding of roadways and small streams”.

In the bigger picture, though: “The risk of flooding has lowered some since the peak last night.”

Updated

LA activists describe struggle to connect unhoused people with shelter in the storm

When Los Angeles is pummeled with intense amounts of rain, the people at the greatest risk are the estimated 50,000 local residents who are unsheltered, living outside in tents, cars or makeshift encampments. Despite Los Angeles’ typically warm climate, deaths due to exposure are a serious risk: fourteen unhoused people died of hypothermia here in 2021.

While Los Angeles county does open severe weather shelters during periods of dangerous weather, getting a place in one of those shelters is not always easy.

KTownforAll, a local advocacy organization focused on homelessness, described the problems its volunteers encountered when they tried to help a local woman find a bed in a shelter this past weekend:

The 211 operator “clearly felt bad” and “gave us three more phone numbers to try, just in case”, the activists said. But when they called those numbers, they found yet more hurdles:

Read the full thread here.

Updated

As storms continue, Los Angeles tallies up new rainfall records

Our extreme weather reporter Gabrielle Canon flags a new record at UCLA:

Updated

Video: heavy storm in California downs trees and floods roads

California is being drenched by a giant atmospheric river-fueled storm that has caused record levels of rain, dangerous flooding and violent winds that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands.

Nearly 38 million people are under flood alerts across the state and into Arizona, including about 10 million people in Los Angeles county. At least three people have reportedly died because of the storm, struck by felled trees that toppled on to or around their homes.

Updated

Disneyland, open during today’s storm, will close early this evening

Southern California’s Magic Kingdom park was still open to visitors today, despite the weather, but will be closing early tonight, at 8pm rather than at 10pm, according to the OC Register’s dedicated theme park reporter:

Disneyland had closed an hour early on Sunday night as storms raged across California.

Updated

Third reported California storm death is 42-year-old man near Sacramento

Local news outlets are reporting a third storm-related death in Northern California: a 42-year-old man from Carmichael, who died after a tree fell on him on Sunday.

Two previous storm-related deaths have been reported in California: a man in Yuba City was found dead under a tree, and a person in Santa Cruz county died after a tree fell onto their residence.

More photos of mudslides in Beverly Crest area of Los Angeles

We reported earlier today on mudslides burying cars in Beverly Crest, a Los Angeles neighborhood north of Beverly Hills. Fifteen people, including nine children, were evacuated from homes in Beverly Crest where debris flows damaged six homes, the Los Angeles fire department had said.

The Associated Press has more images of multiple vehicles sunk in the mud.

Cars sit buried by a mudslide, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, in the Beverly Crest area of Los Angeles.
Cars sit buried by a mudslide, on Monday, 5 February 2024, in the Beverly Crest area of Los Angeles. A storm of historic proportions unleashed record levels of rain over parts of Los Angeles, sending mud and boulders down hillsides dotted with multimillion-dollar homes and knocking out power for more than 1 million people in California. Photograph: Marcio José Sánchez/AP
Vehicles buried by a mudslide in the Beverly Crest area of Los Angeles.
Vehicles buried by a mudslide in the Beverly Crest area of Los Angeles. Photograph: Marcio José Sánchez/AP

Updated

Latest weather report suggests rain over Los Angeles could worsen this afternoon

My colleague Gabrielle Canon, the Guardian’s extreme weather correspondent, reports that the rain in Los Angeles, which had let up slightly in the late morning, could worsen through this afternoon:

And that’s not all: new projections from the NWS also suggest the rain could continue through Wednesday, rather than ending on Tuesday:

The newest wrinkle is some projections showing another small low pressure area dropping off the coast on Wednesday and producing another organized band of rain that will sweep through California Wednesday night into Thursday. While any additional rain through the event will be generally light to moderate in intensity…locally heavy but brief downpours (rates of 0.5 to 1.0 inches per hour) are expected…

Updated

Sunday was ‘tenth wettest day’ in LA history, mayor says

This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live news coverage in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference that Sunday was “tenth wettest day in the history of this city”, going back to 1877, the year when current rain-tracking records began.

“Stay safe and off the roads. Only leave your house if it is absolutely necessary,” she urged city residents.

First responders had been working around the clock to respond to the storm, she said.

“We have had to rescue individuals in certain neighborhoods because they did not follow the evacuation orders,” Bass said. “We ask that when notified that you need to evacuate, please do that so you do not end up needing to be rescued.”

Updated

Midday summary

Here’s what we’ve seen so far today from the major atmospheric river-fueled storm that is unfolding in California:

  • About 1.4 million people in the Los Angeles area, including the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills, were under a flash flood warning on Monday morning. All of Los Angeles county, which is home to nearly 10 million people, was under a flood advisory.

  • The rain is expected to continue battering southern California into Tuesday. Up to 9in of rain had already fallen in the area, and more was expected, according to the National Weather Service. The NWS said that flash flooding and threat of mudslides have created “a particularly dangerous situation.”

  • The intense weather has triggered mud and debris flows in the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica mountains. Firefighters reported helping evacuate several homes in multiple neighborhoods after mud, rocks and trees flowed into residences.

  • Nearly 400,000 homes and businesses are currently without power and more than one million people are likely being impacted by the outages. The outages have largely been concentrated in northern California, which was hit hard by storms on Sunday.

  • Authorities are investigating two deaths that appear to be related to the extreme weather. A man in Yuba City was found dead under a tree and a person in Santa Cruz county died after a tree fell onto their residence.

My colleague Lois Beckett will have more on the storm, so stay tuned.

Updated

It appears that power is being restored in some areas

Nearly 400,000 homes and businesses are without power across the state, according to poweroutage.us. That’s down from Monday morning when more than 500,000 customers were experiencing outages. Still, the outages are likely impacting more than one million people in the state.

Pacific Gas and Electric, which serves nearly half of all Californians, said it had restored power to about 765,000 of its customers since Sunday. The storm was one of the most damaging on record, the utility said.

“In terms of outage totals, this was one of the top three most damaging, single-day storms on record, only comparable to storms 2008 and 1995,” Sumeet Singh, the company’s chief operating officer said on Monday. “We understand how difficult it is to be without electricity. Please know we are here to support you and we will not rest until the lights are back on.”

An avalanche warning has been issued for the central Sierra Nevada, including around Lake Tahoe, as the region sees an “intense pulse of snowfall” that will likely bring another foot of snow.

“This combined with strong winds will fuel ongoing snowpack instability and keep natural avalanches very likely today,” the Sierra Avalanche Center said in a statement.

The region has been battered by intense winds in recent days. The ski resort Palisades Tahoe saw a wind gust of 148mph on Sunday, according to Accuweather.

The warning comes just a month after an avalanche at a Lake Tahoe ski resort left one person dead.

Another debris flow has been reported in Los Angeles

Fifteen people, including nine children, were evacuated from homes in Beverly Crest where debris flows damaged six homes, the Los Angeles fire department said.

Footage from the scene showed dense mud that buried at least one vehicle.

Firefighters in southern California have rescued people trapped in cars and along rivers amid harrowing conditions.

In Riverside county, crews rescued two people and their dogs who were stranded on the riverbottom early Monday morning, and just hours later rescued two more people from another area of the river.

Firefighters in San Bernardino county rescued three people from a tree after they attempted to cross a flooded road and water flooded their vehicle.

The governor’s office of emergency services stationed water rescue teams with fire departments and counties across the state in preparation for the extreme weather.

Brian Ferguson, the office’s deputy director of crisis communications, has described the situation as “a significant threat to the safety of Californians”.

Updated

What are the atmospheric rivers hitting California?

California is grappling with another round of strong storms this week and the dangerous potential for flash flooding, landslides, and furious winds expected to come with them.

Much like last year, when record rainfall lashed the state, the storms are attributed to atmospheric rivers (ARs), systems that have long played a role in California’s precipitation levels – both for good and for bad.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration refers to these systems as “rivers in the sky” for good reason. Characterized by long streams of moisture in the atmosphere that span between 250 and 375 miles wide on average, the ARs that affect the US west are supercharged by water vapor that evaporates off the Pacific Ocean and they are carried by other weather systems from the tropics or the subtropics.

The average atmospheric river carries an amount of water vapor that rivals the flow at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi River – and strong ones can hold more than 15 times that amount. That moisture is released as rain or snow when ARs make landfall and, depending on the size, timing and intensity, the storms that result can be highly destructive or extremely beneficial.

ARs are important contributors to California’s water supply, providing up to half of the rainfall and snow that the dry state relies on through the year. But the big ones can also overload rivers and reservoirs, causing damaging floods. The systems also tend to come equipped with strong winds that tear down trees and powerlines, adding to their destructive tendencies.

Read more here:

Updated

Los Angeles public schools have largely remained open despite the intense storm bearing down on southern California.

Los Angeles Unified said on Monday that all its schools would remain open with the exception of two sites in an area at risk of potentially dangerous hillside conditions.

“We will continue to closely monitor conditions at all schools, and especially at those schools which are more often impacted by the rain,” the district said in a statement. “We recognize the severity this storm can cause especially in certain communities and urge everyone to be careful and cautious.”

In Malibu, which has seen significant flooding, all schools were closed on Monday because of road closures, the school district said.

UCLA and USC held classes as scheduled while several California State University campuses cancelled all in-person classes or held classes online.

Nearly 10m people under flood alert in Los Angeles county

The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for all of Los Angeles county on Monday, putting nearly 10 million people under alert.

Southern California is expected to see heavy to moderate rain until Tuesday. The NWS forecast up to 8in in coastal and valley areas, and as much as 14in in the foothills and mountains.

“Increasingly saturated conditions and ongoing flooding will be further exacerbated by this additional rainfall, continuing the threat for life-threatening, locally catastrophic flash, urban and small-stream flooding, as well as a threat for debris flows and mudslides,” the National Weather Service said.

Updated

Another death has been reported as a storm continues to batter California

One person was killed on Sunday when a tree fell on a home in Boulder Creek, the Santa Cruz county sheriff’s office said, according to a report from KSBW8.

The person was trapped in the residence and died on scene, while another person was able to escape after the tree fell, deputies said.

Authorities in northern California are investigating another death in Yuba City, where a man was found deceased under a redwood tree in his backyard on Sunday.

Updated

Here are some photos of the impacts of the major atmospheric river storm that has hit California:

A person walks through flood waters on 4 February 2024 in Santa Barbara.
A person walks through flood waters on 4 February 2024 in Santa Barbara. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Storm damage from mud, rock and debris flows along Lockridge Road in Studio City.
Storm damage from mud, rock and debris flows along Lockridge Road in Studio City. Photograph: David Crane/AP
Mud and debris is strewn on Fryman Rd during a rain storm in Studio City.
Mud and debris is strewn on Fryman Rd during a rain storm in Studio City. Photograph: Marcio José Sánchez/AP
Jeffrey Raines clears debris from a mudslide at his parent's home during a rainstorm in Los Angeles.
Jeffrey Raines clears debris from a mudslide at his parent's home during a rainstorm in Los Angeles. Photograph: Ethan Swope/AP
A tree splintered due to extreme winds on Fillmore Street in San Francisco.
A tree splintered due to extreme winds on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. Photograph: Brontë Wittpenn/AP

The storm has brought heavy snow to California’s Sierra Nevada in what experts said could be the biggest snow event this season.

The ski resort Palisades Tahoe said Sunday it was anticipating the heaviest snowfall yet this winter. It had already received 2ft of snow over four days, and anticipated another one to two feet of snow.

The UC Berkeley central sierra snow lab reported more than a foot of snow over the last day.

The heavy snow was expected to continue Monday throughout the Sierra Nevada. Authorities have urged motorists to avoid mountain roads.

Over 500,000 without power across California

More than 500,000 households and businesses across California are without power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages across the country.

The outage are concentrated in northern California, and are likely affecting more than one million people. In some counties, nearly half of all residents have lost electricity as powerful winds, some as high as 100mph, knocked down trees and power lines.

Pacific Gas and Electric, which provides power to nearly half of all Californians, has said the “hazardous weather conditions" may impact when they will be able to restore services.

Updated

In Los Angeles, the intense rain has triggered mud and debris flows in the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica mountains.

Firefighters evacuated several homes overnight in Studio City and Tarzana after mud, rocks and trees flowed into residences. No one was injured.

“I’ve been doing damage reports all night, so I’ve seen a fair amount of damage, and of people being evacuated from homes due to mudslides,” said Todd Hall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service near Los Angeles.

Lindsay Horvath, an LA county supervisor, urged residents near wildfire burn areas of Topanga and Soledad canyons to heed orders to get out ahead of possible mudslides.

Officials have put in place evacuation orders and warnings for mountain and canyon areas of Los Angeles county as well as Monterey, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

The storm traveled across northern California on Sunday, where it inundated roads and forced down power lines and trees.

The weather service’s San Francisco Bay Area office issued its first ever “hurricane force wind warning.” Winds in the region exceeded 60mph (96 kph), with some gusts in the mountains topping 80mph (128 kph).

A hillside collapse in downtown San Francisco blocked traffic on Sunday afternoon.

To the south, in San Jose, emergency services pulled stranded motorists out of cars caught in floodwaters and rescued people from a homeless encampment alongside a rising river.

1.4 million under rare flash flood warning as 'life-threatening landslides' batter California

A strong storm is lashing California on Monday, causing flooding and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people.

As the storm sat over the Los Angeles basin, more than 1.4 million people are under a rare flash flood warning. Up to 9in of rain has already fallen in the area, the National Weather Service has said.

Officials are particularly worried about the Hollywood Hills area and Santa Monica mountains, where the NWS warned of “life-threatening landslides and additional flash flooding”.

Officials in northern California reported one person was killed when the storm passed through there. An elderly man in Yuba City died when a redwood tree fell in his backyard.

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Updated

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