After three weeks of rain that killed several people, the US president declared a state of major disaster in California on Sunday, where bad weather is expected again. The night before, tens of thousands of Californians were ordered to evacuate.
US President Joe Biden declared a state of major disaster in California, where the worst weather is expected on Sunday, January 15, after three weeks of record-breaking rain that killed at least 19 people.
Joe Biden ordered federal support to help residents and communities across the state repair damage caused since December 27 by severe winter storms, which have caused flooding, mudslides and mudslides, according to a statement from the White House.
A major wave of rain and mountain snow swept through many parts of the most populous US state on Saturday, whose soils are already saturated with water.
A new “atmospheric river,” that is, a narrow band in the atmosphere that carries large amounts of moisture from the tropics, is expected on Monday, a US holiday, bringing “new waves of extreme precipitation,” the Service warns. National Meteorological. (NWS).
Power lines were hit, while fields and highways were flooded in California.
The NWS expects “disastrous flooding” in the lower Salinas River Valley, an important agricultural region south of the San Francisco Bay. “This is not over,” California Governor Gavin Newsom warned at a press conference, arguing that although the rain lessened in intensity, the soils were waterlogged and the risk of flooding remained significant.
Aware of the fatigue of Californians after several weeks of downpours, he urged “everyone to maintain vigilance and common sense for the next 24 to 48 hours.”
evacuation order
Nearly 26 million Californians were still under a flood watch as of Saturday night, according to the NWS, with tens of thousands of them ordered to evacuate.
“I’m so angry, it just makes me want to cry,” Camilla Shaffer, a 59-year-old Briton living in Felton, south of San Francisco, told AFP.
In this town, Amberlee Galvin and her mother saw water rise to their ground floor ceiling “within 10 minutes” Monday, and even to the top. “A neighbor rescued us in a canoe,” says this 23-year-old cook.
In the Salinas region, a city of 160,000 inhabitants south of San Francisco where the river of the same name overflowed, the flooding affected the agricultural corners of the valley but saved the urban areas, an AFP journalist said this Saturday morning.
In Spreckles, a development a few hundred yards from the creek, most residents had not evacuated despite warnings from authorities this week.
“It seems we’ve avoided the worst,” exhales Robert Zagajeski, walking his dog in a light rain. According to forecasters, the river should start receding from Saturday.
As in the rest of California, in Salinas, the homeland of John Steinbeck, where the Nobel Prize for Literature was inspired to write his ‘Grapes of Wrath’, the floods continue.
“We need as much rain as possible, but farmers can’t do anything with such wet fields,” sighs Robert Zagajeski.
A few kilometers further on, Erick Díaz watches the flooded fields from his modest wooden house not far from the river. Despite an evacuation order targeting 17,000 people in the area, he, too, remains at home.
“I have nowhere to go and so far everything is fine,” said the 30-year-old farm worker.
a mighty blizzard
In the mountains, this precipitation translates into heavy snowfall, with more than one meter forecast over the weekend in the Sierra Nevada. The authorities warn of the risk of avalanches and advise against any movement.
Officials at Lake Tahoe Ski Resort in Nevada released photos showing dozens of vehicles lined up on a road blocked by a heavy snow storm.
At least 19 people have died since the start of the bad weather. Drivers were found in their cars trapped by waves, people struck by falling trees, a couple died in a landslide and bodies were washed away by floodwaters.
California is used to extreme weather conditions and winter storms are common. But the effects of the current climate are unusual.
While it’s hard to make a direct link between this series of storms and climate change, scientists regularly explain that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
However, the torrential rains of the last few weeks will not be enough to end the drought that has hit this western American state hard for two decades, according to specialists.
with AFP
