California

The latest Pacific storm unleashed torrential downpours and damaging winds in California on Tuesday, a day after heightened flood and mudslide risks ...

"We're in the middle of a three-year megadrought in the entire west coast of the United States ... But evacuation orders throughout Santa Barbara County were lifted on Tuesday afternoon, the county sheriff's department announced. 101, the main highway connecting northern and southern California, with no estimated time on reopening. Experts say the growing frequency and intensity of such storms, interspersed with extreme heat and dry spells, are symptoms of climate change. "This storm was different from the standpoint that it was here much longer. Register for free to Reuters and know the full story

California saw no relief from drenching rains early Tuesday, as the latest in a relentless string of storms continued to swamp roads and batter coastlines ...

The 60-year-old owner of the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary said one of her employees came to make a weekly food delivery and also became stuck. Firefighters using helicopters rescued more than a dozen people trapped on an island in the surging waters. A five-year-old boy vanished in floodwaters Monday on the central coast. A roughly seven-hour search for the five-year-old boy was called off as water levels were too dangerous for divers, officials said. Areas hit by wildfires in recent years faced the possibility of mud and debris sliding off denuded hillsides that have yet to fully recover their protective layer of vegetation. It could bring enough rain to exacerbate ongoing flooding and heighten the risk of mudslides, forecasters said.

(Bloomberg) -- California faces more drenching rain, as concerns about drought have been replaced by fears of flooding that's killed at least 14 people, ...

The bad weather already has caused more than $1 billion in losses and damages, according to an estimate by AccuWeather Inc. Several other towns throughout the state advised residents to get out before more rivers flood. “It’s really rare to get this series of storms,” Michael Anderson, state climatologist for the Department of Water Resources, said at a media briefing Tuesday.

More than 200000 residents are without power and thousands were ordered to evacuate after another powerful storm battered California on Monday.

[roughly 32,000 residents were ordered to evacuate](https://twitter.com/SantaCruzSO1/status/1612255718559854592) after the San Lorenzo River was declared at flood stage. [Another sinkhole in Santa Barbara](https://twitter.com/PIOSBCFireInfo/status/1612675364974886914) caused a road closure impacting 500 homes. Nearly all of California has seen average rainfall totals 400-600% above their average values, [the National Weather Service said](https://origin.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=pmdspd&version=0&fmt=reg). Authorities [lifted the order](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=511749477811066&set=pcb.511749637811050) Tuesday afternoon but warned that "slides are still possible due to soil saturation levels." Over two days, [rainfall exceeded 13 inches](https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=LOX&issuedby=LOX&product=RRM&format=CI&version=1&glossary=0) in several parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. An evacuation order was lifted on Tuesday for the wealthy enclave of Montecito, home to celebrities like Oprah and Prince Harry. "This is crazy," she says, pivoting the camera to show rushing water. The vehicle became stranded in floodwaters while trying to cross a river [local media reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/two-cars-fall-down-sinkhole-in-chatsworth-passengers-trapped-inside/). "This creek next to our house never overflows, ever. [ said](https://twitter.com/SLOSheriff/status/1612962972963422210?s=20&t=z0LaO_lsht7C46MZip8nyw). [.](https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article270956687.html)

For Canadians in storm areas, Global Affairs Canada advises them to move to higher ground, exercise caution, stay informed and follow the instructions of ...

In Los Angeles and surrounding areas, a flood watch was expected to remain in effect until 10 p.m. A strong Pacific storm system was expected to bring periods of widespread heavy rainfall with rates between one-half and one inch per hour, it said. Atmospheric rivers, named by researchers in the 1990s, occur globally but are especially significant on the U.S. In Los Angeles, a sinkhole swallowed two cars near Chatsworth on Monday night. La Conchita, a coastal town in Ventura County, was also ordered evacuated. The boy’s mother was driving a truck when it became stranded near Paso Robles. It was the first of several storms that were expected to roll across California. Bystanders managed to pull her free, but the boy was swept out of the truck and carried away, probably into a river, an official said. 4, powerful winds roared into California, toppling trees as crews rushed to clear storm drains from earlier storms, and as people fortified their homes in preparation for flooding and power outages. The boy had not been declared dead, said San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office Spokesperson Tony Cipolla. Tuesday’s storm prompted a few tornado warnings early in the morning. Several parts of U.S.

Californians are again being pummeled by heavy rainstorms this week. On Monday, the National Weather Service issued flood watches for 34 million ...

[14 inches](https://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/precipMaps.php?group=sca&img=3) of water over the last 24 hours while the San Marcos Pass has been drenched in over [12 inches](https://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/precipMaps.php?group=sca&img=3) of rainfall. By Wednesday, the storms will have drenched most of California with three to seven inches of water, according to the NWS. [PowerOutage.us](https://poweroutage.us/area/state/california), an online tracker or blackouts throughout the U.S. As a result, almost all of California has received between 400 and 600 percent above-average rainfall totals over the past few weeks, according to the NWS. California has experienced an almost non-stop barrage of heavy rainstorms since the beginning of January with more expected to hit the state later this week. [flood watches](https://www.weather.gov/images/crh/dhs/wwa_population.png) on Monday for about 34 million Californians or around 90 percent of the Golden State’s total population.

The storms threatened coastal and riverside towns and left more than 200000 homes and businesses without power early Tuesday.

The concept has yet to be tested and proven but suggests a way forward for California. Wentworth, the mayor of Mammoth Lakes who has also served on a climate adaptation and resiliency advisory body to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Some of the blow was softened by local reservoirs that “have a large amount of flood-absorbing capacity due to the multiyear drought,” Mr. In the mountains, meanwhile, great mounds of snow accumulated. In San Francisco, authorities issued a flash-flood warning for the entirety of downtown. But for now, the precipitation has brought a glimmer of optimism, Prof. None of it is enough to dispel the deep foreboding that decades of drought have brought to the region. In Los Angeles, water coursed through a pedestrian tunnel in Union Station, the city’s main rail and subway nexus, while five-metre-high waves slammed into beaches north of the city. A warm March could sublimate large quantities of snow, sucking moisture into the atmosphere instead of releasing it as snowmelt runoff. But the weather emergency has also brought some hope to a state where water shortages have grown increasingly dire, after a 2022 that was globally the fifth-hottest on record. Department of Agriculture shows snow quantities throughout the Sierra Nevadas are now more than double typical amounts; some basins have seen quadruple the median levels of winter precipitation, which is measured as “snow water equivalent.” More than a dozen people are dead in California after pounding rain laced with hail descended on parts of the state, felling trees, inundating roads, flooding homes, severing power lines and swallowing at least one car into a sink hole.

Governor Gavin Newsom said California will face a $22.5 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, the first for the most populous US state since ...

Floods and mudslides forced thousands of people to evacuate as more than 200000 homes and businesses left without power.

The 60-year-old owner of the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary said one of her employees came to make a weekly food delivery and also became stuck. [250 trees have also toppled ](https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/map-storm-trees-fall-17706285.php)across San Francisco as a result of the storms, the Chronicle reported. McLeod said she feels fortunate because her home sits on high ground and the power is still on. In the San Francisco Bay Area, sewers and sewage treatment plants have been overwhelmed by rain, prompting a local officials to warn: “Don’t jump in puddles. But flooding and mudslides could follow, even during a brief respite, because the ground remains saturated. “We expect these storms to continue at least through the 18th of this month. A catastrophic barrage of storms has caused destruction since late December, with the latest hitting in recent days and more storms on the horizon. We expect a minimum three more of these atmospheric rivers.” A five-year-old was still missing after being swept away by floodwaters in Paso Robles, Newsom said, asking state residents to “just pray for a miracle” that the child be found alive. Union Station, a key transportation hub in downtown LA, was inundated with floodwater following downpours on Tuesday. This week’s storm has unleashed havoc up and down the state. Relatives and friends said their deaths highlighted the needs for

Dry, baked soil absorbs less rain and sheds more as runoff, while drought-fueled wildfires weaken the tree and plant roots that hold soil in place.

On steep slopes, the water rushing downhill can accelerate, eroding soil in its path, picking up rocks and debris and joining with other rivulets of water to make a growing and potentially destructive mudslide. By vaporizing waxy compounds in vegetation that are then deposited in the soil, extremely hot fires can also make soils water-repellent, increasing surface runoff when the rains come and raising the risk of a mudslide. The rugged hills along California’s coast are especially susceptible to this kind of landslide. They found that it had been moving at a rate of about 7 inches a year for about a decade. When heavy rain falls on soil like that, less of the water soaks in. Mudslides, which are also referred to as debris flows, tend to be shallow, eroding the topmost layer of soil and picking up rocks and other debris on the surface.

The governor's office in the US state has increased the death toll to 14, with a 5-year-old still missing in the floods.

The neighbourhood saw a flow of debris estimated to be 1.5 metres (five feet) tall. That year, the administration documented 18 extreme weather events that caused more than $1bn in devastation a piece. Close to 90 percent of California, the most populous state in the US, remains under a flood watch on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Check out this neighborhood in Studio City on Fredonia Dr- roads are covered with mud, debris and water up to car doors & bumpers. “It sounded like the earth was shaking,” a resident told the news station KNBC in Los Angeles on Tuesday. But the boy was last seen drifting away in the floodwaters, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune newspaper. “It sounded like an explosion. [It is] probably about nine feet up, and it’s going to go another two feet up.” Approximately 20 homes in Los Osos were severely damaged by floodwaters. This creek next to our house never flows, ever. Cars swallowed up by a sinkhole in a Los Angeles suburb. Sewage overflowing onto streets in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Balanced funding plan maintains investments in key priorities including education, health care, public safety, climate action, addressing homelessness…

This includes major funding to transform our education system, address the homelessness crisis and housing affordability, increase health care access, tackle the climate crisis, keep Californians safe and expand economic development and growth across the state. “In partnership with the Legislature, we’ll continue to prioritize the issues that matter most to Californians while building a strong fiscal foundation for the state’s future.” “With our state and nation facing economic headwinds, this budget keeps the state on solid economic footing while continuing to invest in Californians – including transformative funding to deliver on universal preschool, expand health care access to all and protect our communities,” said Governor Newsom.

Rescuers resumed searching on Tuesday for a 5-year-old boy who was swept away by fast-rising floodwaters in Central California the day before.

“Kyle was a blessing, he was a child of love. Water was still raging down the creek where he disappeared, making it tough to gauge how far the boy may have been carried, he said. Monday on a rural path that winds between wineries and ranches and twice crosses the creek that feeds into the Salinas River, Mr. At some point, their car began floating away on rising waters, hit a tree and began filling with water. The family had held out hope for a miracle on Monday, Mr. The 5-year-old had been recovering from leg surgery in November, when doctors removed a metal rod from an earlier fracture, said his father, Brian Doan, in an interview on Tuesday.

More than 200000 residents are without power and thousands were ordered to evacuate after another powerful storm battered California on Monday.

[Another sinkhole in Santa Barbara](https://twitter.com/PIOSBCFireInfo/status/1612675364974886914) caused a road closure impacting 500 homes. Photos from the area showed homes and cars peeking out like islands from muddy brown water. "This is crazy," she says, pivoting the camera to show rushing water. The vehicle became stranded in floodwaters while trying to cross a river The boy has not been declared dead. [local media reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/two-cars-fall-down-sinkhole-in-chatsworth-passengers-trapped-inside/). [the National Weather Service said.](https://twitter.com/NWSLosAngeles/status/1612584615000313857) "This creek next to our house never overflows, ever. [according to the Associated Press.](https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Californiadelugeforcesmassevacuationsboysweptaway/7c151eeaf3f567a125d74245173327f1/text?Query=california%20boy&mediaType=text&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=19¤tItemNo=1) [.](https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article270956687.html) [A flash flood warning was later issued](https://twitter.com/SLOCityFire/status/1612538776378556417) for the region. near San Miguel, a central town roughly 35 miles inland from the coast.

At least 16 deaths have been reported in the state in two weeks of storms. The most common causes of death are flooding and falling trees.

The crash that killed the victims was reported around 5:55 a.m. He was driving a tree service boom truck that rolled over several times after leaving the roadway, county officials said. He was likely unhoused and living in San Bernardino. His father was also in the trailer but survived. They were pronounced dead New Year’s Day, according to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. As the system of winter storms continues to batter California, officials have reported a death toll of at least 18 people across the state.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — From a budget perspective, the first four years of California Gov. Gavin Newsom's time in office has been a fairy tale: A ...

“Stock market and tech sector business trends are driving state revenues even lower,” Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said. Since then, the federal government’s attempts to reign in inflation have had a chilling effect on the economy, meaning rich people are not making as much money. California’s deficit is a sharp turnaround from the previous year, when California had a surplus of around $100 billion. “I don’t think there’s a parent that doesn’t understand the significance of this fentanyl crisis.” The money would come from the state’s share of legal settlement with pharmaceutical companies over opioids. While the deficit got most of the attention on Tuesday, Newsom did propose some new spending. “It’s exactly in economic downturns where this kind of help to afford coverage is even more urgent” said Anthony Wright, president of the consumer advocacy group Health Access. Newsom proposed taking the money in that account — $333.4 million — and sweeping it into the state’s general fund to help balance the budget. He has proposed $9.6 billion in cuts, including canceling a planned $750 million payment on a federal loan the state took to cover unemployment benefits for people who lost their job during the pandemic. Notably, Newsom chose not to dip into the state’s $35.6 billion savings account. But just days into his second term, that dream appeared to be ending. Gavin Newsom’s time in office has been a fairy tale: A seemingly endless flow of money that paid to enact some of the country’s most progressive policies while acting as a bulwark against a tide of conservative rulings on abortion and guns from the U.S.

A deadly "parade of storms" have battered the state, causing millions in damage, with more on the way.

"It really isn't going to take a lot of rain or you know those extreme strong winds to really cause havoc," Ms Blair said. More storms are expected this weekend and into next week, Ms Blair said. Areas can also become more susceptible to landslides and sinkholes.

California - one of the driest states in the US - is being inundated with torrential rain and flooding. And given the decades-long drought in the region, ...

California, along with other states in the western US, is suffering from a long drought that has dried up its wells and drained its water reservoirs. So it would have little effect in the short-term. "It's always good to see rain in California," he told the BBC. Another issue experts have raised is the limited reservoir capacity. In fact, experts say it would take consecutive years of severe wet weather to reverse it in the long-term. And given the decades-long drought in the region, which has led to restrictions on water usage in some areas, you might be wondering if this extreme weather could in some ways be a positive.

Sinkholes swallowed cars and floodwaters swamped towns and swept away a small boy as California was wracked by more wild winter while the next in a powerful ...

[Autos](https://www.ctvnews.ca/autos) ['Extensive' Tesla Autopilot probe proceeding quickly, U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told reporters on Monday that the regulatory agency is 'working really fast' on the Tesla Autopilot investigation it opened in August 2021. [Politics](https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics) [Joe Biden's visit to Canada confirmed, as feds agree to buy U.S. It’s official: Elon Musk has now shattered the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history. lawmakers to expel Jair Bolsonaro from a post-presidential retreat in Florida following his supporters' brazen attack on Brazil's capital over the weekend. In an effort to mitigate the backlog of Nexus applicants awaiting interviews, Public Safety Canada and U.S. President Joe Biden will be making an official visit to Canada in March, his first trip to this country since becoming president in January 2021. In the wealthy seaside community of Montecito, 128 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday for about 10,000 people, including Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. A sinkhole swallowed two cars on a Los Angeles street, trapping two motorists who had to be rescued by a team of firefighters. The latest atmospheric river -- a long plume of moisture stretching out into the Pacific that can drop staggering amounts of rain and snow -- began easing in some areas. While most of the state remains in extreme or severe drought, according to the U.S. "We've had less people die in the last two years of major wildfires in California than have died since New Year's Day related to this weather," Newsom said.

After nearly a quarter-century of drought across the U.S. southwest, mountainous regions have seen nearly twice the normal snowfall.

The concept has yet to be tested and proven but suggests a way forward for California. Wentworth, the mayor of Mammoth Lakes who has also served on a climate adaptation and resiliency advisory body to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Some of the blow was softened by local reservoirs that “have a large amount of flood-absorbing capacity due to the multiyear drought,” Mr. In the mountains, meanwhile, great mounds of snow accumulated. In San Francisco, authorities issued a flash-flood warning for the entirety of downtown. But for now, the precipitation has brought a glimmer of optimism, Prof. None of it is enough to dispel the deep foreboding that decades of drought have brought to the region. In Los Angeles, water coursed through a pedestrian tunnel in Union Station, the city’s main rail and subway nexus, while five-metre-high waves slammed into beaches north of the city. A warm March could sublimate large quantities of snow, sucking moisture into the atmosphere instead of releasing it as snowmelt runoff. But the weather emergency has also brought some hope to a state where water shortages have grown increasingly dire, after a 2022 that was globally the fifth-hottest on record. Department of Agriculture shows snow quantities throughout the Sierra Nevadas are now more than double typical amounts; some basins have seen quadruple the median levels of winter precipitation, which is measured as “snow water equivalent.” More than a dozen people are dead in California after pounding rain laced with hail descended on parts of the state, felling trees, inundating roads, flooding homes, severing power lines and swallowing at least one car into a sink hole.

The series of storms that have struck California have poured water on a state mired in a years-long drought.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. California officials predict there will be less water in the state’s future. And the rain and snow won’t be enough to fix some of California’s long-term water problems that climate change is making worse. The problem is the already wet ground won’t be able to absorb much more water, creating problems with runoff. “Those biggest reservoirs are just so massive it is probably going to take awhile for them to fill,” he said. The reservoirs also supply water to millions of people living in coastal cities. It’s still early in the winter and it’s unclear what the next few months will bring. But a few warm, dry months followed, and when snowpack was supposed to peak in early April, it was just 38% of the historic average. But now that snowpack often melts too quickly and reservoirs aren’t able to capture enough of it. The storms have also dumped snow on the Sierra Nevada that run along California’s eastern border. Suddenly, the state has been hit by a severe series of storms, with more expected in the coming days.

(Bloomberg) -- For all the torrential rains soaking California, it's not enough to end the drought that has dogged the state for years.

The state has seen the level of exceptional drought — the worst category — drop to zero in its Jan. While the latest storms aren’t seen to do much to dent California’s total drought, the weather has reduced the overall severity of the dryness. “There has definitely been some damage to the ecosystem in terms of groundwater storage.” Even then, drought has left lingering challenges for California, according to Brad Rippey, a meteorologist with the US Department of Agriculture and co-author of the drought report. The Pacific storms have brought California within 80% of what it needs by April 1 to consider this an average year, which is vastly better than the past three years. “This has created a huge water deficit that will take time — and much more rain and snow – to erase,” Jones said in an emailed statement.

California has experienced a devastating, multi-year drought that's depleted reservoirs, forced officials to plead with residents to conserve water an...

The AP is solely responsible for all content. The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. California officials predict there will be less water in the state’s future. And the rain and snow won’t be enough to fix some of California’s [long-term water problems](https://apnews.com/article/california-droughts-climate-and-environment-e49c8c5c34ead7ef7f83b770082f20bc) that climate change is making worse. The recent storms won’t fix that problem. The reservoirs also supply water to millions of people living in coastal cities. The problem is the already wet ground won’t be able to absorb much more water, creating problems with runoff. “Those biggest reservoirs are just so massive it is probably going to take awhile for them to fill,” he said. It’s still early in the winter and it’s unclear what the next few months will bring. Plus, the storms haven’t dropped as much water on northern California. [state has been hit by a severe series of storms](https://apnews.com/article/floods-weather-natural-disasters-landslides-and-mudslides-storms-21b103e791710f4af6ca0ce45c6030b5), with more expected in the coming days. The storms have also dumped snow on the Sierra Nevada that run along California’s eastern border.

More than 200000 residents are without power and thousands were ordered to evacuate after another powerful storm battered California on Monday.

[roughly 32,000 residents were ordered to evacuate](https://twitter.com/SantaCruzSO1/status/1612255718559854592) after the San Lorenzo River was declared at flood stage. [Another sinkhole in Santa Barbara](https://twitter.com/PIOSBCFireInfo/status/1612675364974886914) caused a road closure impacting 500 homes. Nearly all of California has seen average rainfall totals 400-600% above their average values, [the National Weather Service said](https://origin.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=pmdspd&version=0&fmt=reg). Authorities [lifted the order](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=511749477811066&set=pcb.511749637811050) Tuesday afternoon but warned that "slides are still possible due to soil saturation levels." Over two days, [rainfall exceeded 13 inches](https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=LOX&issuedby=LOX&product=RRM&format=CI&version=1&glossary=0) in several parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. An evacuation order was lifted on Tuesday for the wealthy enclave of Montecito, home to celebrities like Oprah and Prince Harry. "This is crazy," she says, pivoting the camera to show rushing water. The vehicle became stranded in floodwaters while trying to cross a river [local media reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/two-cars-fall-down-sinkhole-in-chatsworth-passengers-trapped-inside/). "This creek next to our house never overflows, ever. [ said](https://twitter.com/SLOSheriff/status/1612962972963422210?s=20&t=z0LaO_lsht7C46MZip8nyw). [.](https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article270956687.html)

California faces belt-tightening, particularly in climate spending, amid a projected $22.5B deficit.

“Democrat politicians have wasted a record surplus on new social programs and pork projects, while allowing our aging infrastructure to crumble,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said in a statement. But this lean budget cycle will test state lawmakers who have little experience negotiating from a place of scarcity. Voters created the fund in 2014 by passing a ballot initiative backed by then-Gov. Tax receipts dipped sharply in the latter months of 2022, when the stock market plunged and capital gains revenue dropped. The Democratic governor also maintained his previous commitments to spend on ambitious programs like universal transitional kindergarten and healthcare for undocumented immigrants. Much of the nearly $4 billion “trigger cut” — some $3.1 billion — would come out of climate change and transportation.