Severe winter storms swept across wide areas of California during the Christmas period, causing widespread flooding, mudslides, and power outages, and resulting in at least three fatalities, according to local authorities.
The storm system, which meteorologists said was likely to persist through Friday, delivered heavy rainfall across Southern California. Some locations in Los Angeles County recorded as much as 11 inches (27 centimeters) of rain. The intense precipitation led to evacuations, closures of major highways, and numerous emergency responses as rising waters trapped motorists and inundated low-lying areas.
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency on Wednesday for Los Angeles County and several other counties in Southern California, citing the heightened risk to public safety. Emergency crews carried out multiple rescues, particularly involving individuals stranded in vehicles as floodwaters rose rapidly.
Utility disruptions were also reported, with approximately 100,000 residents across the state without electricity as of Thursday evening.
The U.S. Weather Prediction Center warned that the conditions remained hazardous, stating that numerous flash flooding incidents were possible. The agency added that smaller waterways could overflow and that flooding could extend to larger river systems.
Authorities confirmed several storm-related deaths. In San Diego, a 64-year-old man was killed Wednesday morning when a tree fell, according to local police. In Northern California, a 74-year-old individual died in Redding after floodwaters overtook a vehicle during a rescue attempt, the city’s mayor said. Separately, a woman in her 70s died earlier in the week after being swept into the ocean by a powerful wave at MacKerricher State Park in Mendocino County, according to the county sheriff’s office.
Evacuation advisories were issued for parts of San Bernardino County, while flash flood warnings were in effect across sections of the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday morning. Strong winds accompanied the storms, with gusts exceeding 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour) recorded at an observatory near San Jose, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
In Altadena, northeast of Los Angeles, mudslides were reported in areas previously damaged by wildfires earlier this year. Officials noted that burn scars left the terrain less capable of absorbing heavy rainfall, increasing the likelihood of debris flows.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also declared a local emergency and urged residents to limit travel during the holiday period. In a statement, she warned that road conditions could be especially dangerous and emphasized the seriousness of the storm system.
Meteorologists attributed the prolonged and intense weather to multiple atmospheric rivers—long, narrow bands of moisture originating in the tropics—that moved across the region during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.
