A new storm hits California, victim of a particularly rainy winter
Heavy rain destroyed a road in northern California
Another storm swept through California on Friday, prompting flood risks and evacuation orders in several areas that have already suffered from a particularly rainy winter in recent weeks .
Up to 23 centimeters of precipitation is expected in places. This rain, coming from a rather warm depression, is likely to melt part of the exceptional snowpack accumulated over the past three months.
Enough to cause uncontainable runoff for state waterways.
Rain on Waterlogged soils from this winter's storms and heavy snowpack will cause significant flooding, the US Weather Service (NWS) has warned.
At higher elevations, snowfall in the mountains of Northern California is expected to cause travel difficulties.
US President Joe Biden on Friday endorsed a state statement Emergency Department in California, to facilitate assistance from the federal state.
California is deploying every tool at its disposal to protect communities from relentless and deadly storms battering our state, said Governor Gavin Newsom, calling for this emergency assistance.
Numerous evacuation orders have been issued, particularly in northern California, where seven rivers could experience major flooding.
California, the most populous state in the country , suffered a particularly rainy winter. In January in particular, a series of back-to-back storms caused multiple floods, landslides and falling trees, killing 20 people.
The current storm is fed, like most of the others this winter, by an atmospheric river, a gigantic corridor of rain that carries water vapor stored in the tropics, often around Hawaii, causing them to earns the nickname Pineapple Express.
Stay home tonight if you can, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, near San Francisco, advised on Twitter.
A car was crushed by a falling tree in the area in Redwood City, but the driver and passenger are expected to be fine, the sheriff says.
In eastern California, the Sierra Nevada mountain range has been blanketed in much thicker than normal snowpack for weeks.
Faced with new snowfall on Friday, several ski resorts in the region closed their doors. In South Lake Tahoe, the weight of accumulated snow caused the roof of a gas station to collapse, which started a fire, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.< /p>
Local firefighters reported on a daily basis that several similar incidents had taken place in recent days.
No one was injured in the none of these incidents, which is remarkable, said one of their officials, Kim George.
Further south, in the San Bernardino Mountains near Los Angeles, some villages begin just to become accessible again, after having been cut off from the world for several days, even weeks for some hamlets.
Some inhabitants expressed their annoyance at the slowness of the assistance and a man even stole a municipal snowplow in Big Bear last Saturday.
In the powder, however, he failed to cover his tracks: the ma china was equipped with a tracking device, and he was easily arrested by law enforcement.
