Million-dollar houses engulfed in mud and debris as an atmospheric river lashes across Los Angeles

A historic storm dumped record amounts of rain on parts of Los Angeles on Monday, causing mud and boulders to tumble down hillsides dotted with affluent homes. The large number of homeless people in the city are in grave danger, and over a million Californians lost power as a result.

In the course of a few days, the state was pounded by two storms, both of which were fueled by atmospheric rivers. A flash flood warning was in effect for almost 1.4 million people in the Los Angeles region on Monday morning, which includes the Hollywood and Beverly Hills. The region has already had up to 9 inches (23 cm) of rain, and more is predicted, according to the National Weather Service, which referred to the flash flooding and mudslide hazard as “a particularly dangerous situation.”

Crews were already pulling people out of rapidly rushing water in a number of Southern California locations.

In Studio City, a town named after a movie studio lot on the backside of the Hollywood Hills, gushing torrents carried dirt, boulders, and items from people’s multimillion-dollar houses, including plastic crates, coolers, and ladders. A garage door from one of the wrecked houses was crushed by the debris flow.

Keki Mingus received word about a neighbor’s troublesome home at the top of a hill by text late on Sunday.

Water continued to surge down the road at approximately daybreak on Monday, according to Mingus, as mud, boulders, and water came crashing down into their home and another neighbor’s house and onto our street. It’s unbelievable. It has the appearance of having been here for a long time. It is unlike anything I have ever seen.

The National Weather Service reported that on Sunday, a record 4.1 inches (10.41 centimeters) of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles, surpassing the previous record of 2.55 inches (6.48 centimeters) established in 1927.

Despite this, the Grammy Awards took place as scheduled on Sunday night at the Crypto.com Arena in downtown.

The meteorological service predicted that Southern California’s coastal and valley regions might get up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain over the next two days, with the foothills and mountains possibly seeing up to 14 inches (35 centimeters).

According to poweroutage.us, more than 474,061 residences, companies, or other establishments lacked energy across the state on Monday morning. At Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, commuters hurried to catch trains while stepping over several inches of floodwater.

The storm over the weekend destroyed trees and power lines, flooded roadways, and reached speeds of up to 60 mph (96 kph) in some parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, causing chaos on Monday in Southern California. In the highlands, gusts as high as 80 mph (128 kph) were reported.

In San Jose, just to the south, rescuers dragged people from a homeless camp along a swelling river and out of the windows of a vehicle that had been stuck in floodwaters.

Authorities in Yuba City, which is around 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of San Francisco, said that they were looking into the death of a man who was discovered in his backyard on Sunday night beneath a large redwood tree. According to police on Facebook, the guy may have been attempting to climb a ladder to get over the redwood when he was murdered since a neighbor heard the tree fall.

A rare “hurricane force wind warning” was issued by the meteorological service for the Central Coast, indicating that wind gusts up to 92 mph (148 kph) might occur from the Monterey Peninsula to the northern part of San Luis Obispo County.

After that, the storm proceeded into Southern California, where authorities issued evacuation orders for canyons that had burned in previous wildfires and were at high danger of mud and debris flows, as well as warnings of possibly catastrophic floods.

The 40-foot sailboat they were sailing on lost its mast on Sunday, and 19 people were saved at Long Beach, according to Brian Fisk, a fireman and paramedic with the Long Beach Fire Department.

Eleven passengers managed to crawl onto the rocky breakwater of Alamitos Bay, where they were rescued by lifeguards, after another vessel received the distress call on the marine radio and assisted in the rescue of eight of them, he added. Injuries were handled for one individual.

According to Fisk, “they set out sailing in stormy weather and gale-force winds.” “They’re incredibly fortunate.”

A state of emergency was proclaimed for the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura by Governor Gavin Newsom. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services set up an operations center and placed staff and supplies in the highest-risk locations.

There were emergency shelters in place in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties, and orders to evacuate were issued in many of these areas.

With the exception of Vinedale College Preparatory Academy and Topanga Elementary Charter School, all of the schools in the second-largest school district in the country, Los Angeles Unified School District, will be open on Monday.

However, due to Sunday’s flooding of many Santa Barbara County roadways, Monday’s classes were postponed for all schools in the county. Deadly mudslides decimated the region in 2018.

About 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, the ski resort Palisades Tahoe said on Sunday that it was expecting the most snowfall of the season so far, with accumulations of up to two feet (60 centimeters) and up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) every hour. In the Sierra Nevada, heavy snowfall was predicted through Monday. Drivers were advised to stay off mountain routes.

Following last week’s first atmospheric river-powered storm, a large portion of the state has begun to dry up. As they travel over land, atmospheric rivers—relatively small plumes of moisture that originate over an ocean—can cause deluges of rain.

The term “Pineapple Express” was given to both atmospheric rivers because to the moisture plume that extends across the Pacific to a location close to Hawaii.

There was flooding here. We’ve experienced strong winds, according to Todd Hall, a National Weather Service meteorologist from the Los Angeles area. “Everything has happened here.”