Hundreds of thousands of families were left without power in the United States as an extremely violent Pacific hurricane swept through most of the country’s west coast, followed by torrential rains, gale-force winds, floods and landslides.
At least two people have been killed in the Seattle metropolitan area after a tree was crushed by a storm, according to USA Today. More than 160,000 homes and businesses were left without power Sunday in California, more than 170,000 in northwest Washington state, and more than 28,000 in Oregon due to severe weather.
Floods in the San Francisco Bay Area inundated the streets of Berkeley and sank the gateway to a huge bridge over the bay in Oakland. The Weather Service said more than 15 inches of rain fell on Mount Tamalpais, north of San Francisco, by Sunday morning.
In San Rafael, water covered several roads with a height of more than 60 centimeters, and city officials say more than 330 calls were received for police and firefighters, four times the average. The US Weather Service (NWS) has warned of the possibility of “historic rain” in downtown Sacramento, California.
In Butte County, north of the California capital, Highway Police closed State Route 70 due to mudslides in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Although the forest fires that devastated here are now completely contained, the fires have destroyed vegetation and the soil has become unable to absorb water, making the area vulnerable to landslides and floods. (MTI)