Heavy storms being called a “bomb cyclone” not only prompted California to declare a state of emergency on Wednesday, but storms are also being blamed for the death of an infant and teenager in the northern part of the state.
On Wednesday morning in Fairfield, California, a 19-year-old was killed after her vehicle hydroplaned on a flooded road and struck a utility pole, police shared.
Later Wednesday in Sonoma, California, a 2-year-old was killed after the weather caused a redwood tree to fall onto the mobile home the child and his parents lived in, ABC News reported.
Extreme weather conditions throughout the state have caused more than 142,000 Californians to be without power as of midday Thursday, the power outage site PowerOutage.US reported.
The storm is expected to dump as much as six inches of rain throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, causing flood warnings into Thursday evening. Meanwhile, in Southern California, the storm reached near peak intensity early Thursday morning, USA Today reported.
Even with the peak of the storm passing, 35 million people in the state are currently under a flood watch, with much of the state struggling to absorb moisture due to recent wildfires, CNN reported.
“The public is urged to be on the lookout for potential flooding and mudslides in areas recently burned by wildfires,” state officials warned. “A debris flow can take homes off their foundations and carry items such as vegetation, large boulders, and cars.”
Winds have also reached dangerous levels in parts of the state, as AccuWeather reported wind speeds of 132 miles per hour in the northwest side of Lake Tahoe.
“We anticipate this may be the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” California Director of Emergency Services Nancy Ward said, CNN reported. “If the storm materializes as we anticipate. We could see widespread flooding, mudslides, and power outages in many communities.”
While the rain has been destructive throughout the state, a US Drought Monitor report released on Thursday said that the “exceptional drought” conditions which were impacting almost 17% of the state in September, were not currently an issue.
The storm is also not expected to end any time soon either, as the Weather Channel is continuing to forecast rainy conditions in San Francisco throughout the next two weeks.
As for Los Angeles, it is expected to return to mostly dry for the next week, but showers are expected to return shortly after, according to forecasts.
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