LOS ANGELES (Guardian) -- Millions of Californians are bracing for another soaking, as the next set of severe storms is forecast to hammer the state through the end of the week. In a stormy start to the year, where heavy rains and howling winds have already toppled trees and caused cascades down streets and hillsides resulting in wide-scale damage and one confirmed fatality, the incoming system is threatening to wreak even more havoc.
“We are expecting fairly widespread flooding impacts,” said Richard Bann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, noting that heavy snows across the Sierra Nevada range and strong winds could also pose problems for travel and safety. “It is really a multi-hazard event that will last perhaps the better part of two days.”
An incoming bomb cyclone was expected to hit the San Francisco Bay Area and the surrounding region on Wednesday before sweeping south, with forecasts warning that up to 10 inches of rain is possible in coastal mountain regions. Areas that will see lower rainfall, could still be disastrously affected due to the unfortunate timing and the compounding effect of the consecutive set of storms.
The NWS issued a warning for the risk of excessive rainfall impacting roughly 5 million people across the northern and central California, as agency meteorologists cautioned all who lay in the path of the “truly brutal system” to be prepared.
The impacts could include, “widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillsides collapsing, trees down (potentially full groves), widespread power outages, immediate disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life”, according to a NWS Bay Area’s meteorologist, who wrote in a discussion on Monday that “this will likely be one of the most impactful systems on a widespread scale that [they had] seen in a long while”.
Meanwhile, many across the region were still reeling from the wet weekend before.
The historic storm broke levees in Sacramento county, submerging thousands of acres and stranding dozens of drivers who were caught in the deluge. Evacuations were ordered for two affected communities and the Cosumnes River reportedly reached its highest level in history.
San Francisco, which recorded its second wettest day last weekend, also saw widespread flooding after more than 5 inches of rain hit the city. To the south, two separate sinkholes swallowed cars. By Tuesday morning, roughly 23,000 people were still without power across the state as officials raced to get impacted systems back up and running during a day of dry reprieve.
Officials confirmed on Sunday