Flood Emergency Declared For Much Of California

CNN reports:

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles said an “extremely dangerous situation” is happening in the “Hollywood Hills area and around the Santa Monica Mountains” just outside of Los Angeles, adding that “life threatening landslides and additional flash flooding” were expected. The areas have received widespread rainfall totals more than 5 inches in the last 24 hours, with some spots topping 9 inches. Notable California communities threatened include Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Brentwood and Burbank.

USA Today reports:

A winter storm brought intense downpours and strong winds to California on Sunday, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and flooding roadways across the state. According to Accuweather, up to 37 million people, or about 94% of the state’s population, were at risk for life-threatening floods from the storm. The National Weather Service issued a rare hurricane-force wind warning for the central coast on Sunday as wind gusts up to 92 mph were possible from the Monterey Peninsula to the northern section of San Luis Obispo County. As of 6:42 a.m. ET, over 430,000 customers were without power across the state, according to a USA TODAY power outage tracker.

Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports:

The “worst” of a potent atmospheric river storm is hitting Southern California Monday morning and will continue to bring torrential rain to the region through the day. A state of emergency has been declared in eight Southern California counties from Santa Barbara to San Diego. “This is just the start. We have not even come close to seeing the worst of this storm,” KTLA Meteorologist Henry DiCarlo said.

Governor @GavinNewsom has proclaimed a state of emergency for several counties in Southern California to support storm response and recovery efforts.https://t.co/dhHZ67cuHD

— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) February 4, 2024