LOS ANGELES — The first of two holiday weekend storms delivered a solid punch Saturday to an already beaten and soggy Southland, battering the coast with high surf, threatening more flooding and stretching emergency services.
To the north, flood waters continued to rise with evacuation orders issued in communities from Monterey to Mendocino counties and east to Sacramento. High winds, white-out conditions and spinouts led to the closure of Interstate 80 over the Donner Summit.
Unlike the stream of atmospheric rivers – the so-called Pineapple Express – that brought record rainfall to the region from the western Pacific, this was a more traditional winter storm coming down the coast from the north, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
