More heavy rains, damaging winds torment California

Reuters:

Jan 10 – The latest Pacific storm unleashed torrential downpours and damaging winds in California on Tuesday, a day after heightened flood and mudslide risks prompted thousands of evacuations and caused widespread power outages.

Rainfall throughout the day was expected to be “heavy to excessive” across the state, especially in southern California, as winds gusts were clocked at more than 40 miles (64 km) an hour in many places, the National Weather Service said.

The high winds wreaked havoc on the power grid, knocking out electricity to tens of thousands of Californians. As many as 220,000 homes and businesses were without electricity on Tuesday morning, according to data from Poweroutage.us.

The treacherous weather, expected to dump as much as 7 inches (18 cm) of rain in some parts by Wednesday, could produce widespread flooding, rapid water rises, mudslides and landslides, especially in areas where the ground has been saturated from previous heavy rainfall, the service warned.