Freak weather conditions have caused widespread power outages in Northern California. Strong winds and torrential rain and snow are slowly moving into southern parts of the state on Friday. Authorities have already evacuated hundreds of people in a Los Angeles suburb, fearing flooding and mudslides. People residing in and around Santa Barbara and other parts of the coast remained without power as the storm moves across the state.
San Francisco faced the brunt of the storm as it further intensifies and moves across the state. Roadways have been flooded and trees and power lines uprooted keeping thousands of children and people away from school and work on Thursday.
National Weather Service meteorologist Will Pi said, “It’s a big storm, as we expected, and it’s headed south with very powerful winds and heavy rainfall.”
Two people were killed in Oregon by the storm. Strong winds uprooted a tree and it fell over a homeless man who was sleeping on a trail killing him. Something similar happened when a huge tree fell on a vehicle and killing the teenage boy who was driving it.
The “Pineapple Express” storms is raging from Hawaii to the mainland and even up the mountains were gusty winds of 140 mph has been recorded damaging homes and property in the Lake Tahoe area. The storm left San Francisco drenched. Waves were crashing onto water fronts in the Bay Area and ferries are bound. Schools and businesses have been closed and people asked to stay home.
Crews from the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. are working feverishly to restore power to 110,000 which is down from earlier 166,000. There is still no power over thousands of square miles, from Humboldt near the Oregon border to Big Sur on the Central Coast.
California’s lifeline, the north-south thruway, was closed by flooding in the northern town of Weed.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.