Strong winds and rain brought misery to California on Wednesday, with downed trees, flooding and intermittent power outages reported across the state. Multiple counties, especially in Southern California, are under flash flood warnings after an atmospheric river dropped inches of rain in the region.
Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, said they have received multiple reports of flooding in roads thanks to rain overnight and into Wednesday morning. Wofford said the weather service issued a river flood warning for the Ventura River near U.S. 101, but they don’t expect it to crest the freeway.
“We’ve had upwards of 6-plus inches of rain in some of our mountains,” with up to 7 inches at the summit, Wofford told SFGATE. “At the lower elevations, we’re looking at from 2 to 3 inches of rain.”
In San Bernardino County, the fire department was evacuating homes after a flow of mud and debris left Highway 2 near Wrightwood impassable.
Wofford said they expect even more rain Wednesday afternoon. “We’re obviously not done with it yet,” he said.
On Wednesday morning, the initial rain band had passed over much of the Bay Area, and the sun began to peek out. But high winds overnight meant some residents woke up with damage from downed trees or without power. In Guerneville, a redwood tree toppled over, cutting a home in half, according to a post on X by KCBS-AM reporter Mike DeWald. The Sonoma County Fire District told SFGATE that the tree caused major damage to two homes and that a child had minor injuries.
The North Bay recorded some of the strongest wind, with a 95 mph gust at Pine Mountain Fire Road in the Marin Highlands and an 89 mph gust in Sonoma County.
And the storm meant that just days after a major power outage cut off electricity to a third of PG&E customers in San Francisco, thousands in the Bay Area were without power on Christmas Eve.
Total rainfall in the area didn’t reach the levels seen in Southern California but still caused problems. In Menlo Park, flooding on the 1300 block of Hamilton Avenue and Carlton Avenue from Willow led to police warning people to stay away from the area. Police advised residents to call 911 only if they needed evacuation.
Brian Garcia, a weather service meteorologist, said the Bay Area can expect to get a break before the next round of severe weather rolls in later Wednesday afternoon, again bringing rain and high winds, with even a chance of a tornado. The region remains under a flood watch through Friday.
“There will still be a few showers passing through here, there, but the next bout of wind and rain … can start up later this afternoon, into the early evening hours,” Garcia told SFGATE. “Much like last night, we’re going to have the peak of it occur in the overnight hours.”