LA faces flooding and power outages from heavy rain as burn scar areas told to evacuate
The West Coast is braced for an atmospheric river event that threatens flash flooding and power outages from heavy rain and snow, making travel conditions hazardous or even impossible for some commuters.
Evacuation warnings are already in place for several areas with burn scars from the Palisades and Eaton Fires. Due to predictions of up to 4 inches of rain overnight, flash flood warnings have also been issued for large parts of the region.
“We’re dealing with a fast-moving storm that’s going to dump down a lot of rain in a short amount of time,” said NBC Los Angeles meteorologist Melissa Magee in a forecast on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service warned that heavy rain, snow and winds of up to 70 mph would create “dangerous to potentially impossible travel conditions across the Sierra Nevada and northern California higher terrain today.”
“Especially as heavy rain approaches, I urge all Angelenos to heed all weather warnings,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “This storm has the potential to cause impacts in burn areas but also neighborhoods citywide. City crews have installed thousands of concrete barriers and thousands of sandbags to stop mudflows.”
In addition to evacuation warnings, all of LA is under a flood watch until at least 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) Thursday.
Pea-sized hail is forecasted in the Greater LA area from 3:45 a.m. (6:45 a.m. ET), with the NWS advising people to “seek shelter in a sturdy structure.”
Up to two feet of snow could cause power outages in place, the NWS said, while heavy rain could cause flash flooding across parts of Southern California.
The Pacific Coast Highway was closed early Thursday and lined with concrete barriers in the Palisades and Eaton Fire areas, two months after homes and businesses there were devastated and the landscape left vulnerable to mudslides and subsidence.
The LA mayor’s office said more than 10,000 feet of concrete barriers and 6,500 sandbags were in place.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District said all Malibu schools would shutter on Thursday because of road closures.
Alex Tardy, with the NWS San Diego office, said in a video briefing that the heaviest rain there could come after 5 a.m. PT (8 a.m. ET) and that areas above 5,000 feet could see between 6 and 12 inches of snow, rising to as much as 20 inches in places.
Some fear that rain may lead to mudslides and sinkholes in extreme cases, like one that formed near Jason Nielsen’s home, he told NBC San Diego.
“My house is only about 30 yards from here and I worry about the hillside just collapsing in and getting worse. I don’t see it getting any better, especially as rainy season comes,” Nielsen said.
Looking ahead, a second less severe storm is due to hit the region on Friday, bringing more rain and snow in higher areas.
The same weather system is set to bring blizzard conditions to the Plains on Friday and severe weather across much of the Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, and Tennessee Valleys.
The NWS Storm Prediction Center gives a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms across eastern Missouri, far southeast Iowa, central and southern Illinois and far western Kentucky.
Far northwest Tennessee and extreme northeast Arkansas will also be affected on Friday and could see winds of more than 70 mph and possible strong tornadoes.
And the same massive weather system will raise temperatures in southern states and has prompted a critical fire risk warning for much of the Southern Plains through the weekend.
“This sprawling and dynamic system will also pull warm, dry air from the Desert Southwest into the Southern Plains where tightening pressure gradient will generate strong winds and the potential for fire weather,” the NWS said.
