California alert. Violent winds and torrential rains that can cause heavy flooding have been hitting several regions of this huge western American state since Wednesday, January 4, where the soil is already saturated with water due to recent storms.
The center and the north of the “Golden State”, in particular around San Francisco and the capital of the State, Sacramento, are the most in danger. Authorities issued multiple alerts and warned that this storm was capable of killing people.
Its first effects were felt Wednesday afternoon: more than 60,000 homes suffered power cuts, according to the PowerOutage site, while more than 80 flights to or from San Francisco airport were canceled, according to the Flightaware site. In some counties in the region (Mendocino, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara), several roads were cut due to flooding, falling trees or landslides.
According to the US Weather Service (NWS), winds likely to reach 110 km / h are expected. Very intense rains are also expected to hit the region, with up to 10 centimeters of precipitation forecast in San Francisco Bay and 1.2 meters of snowfall on the Sierra Nevada mountains. The deluge is expected to continue Thursday.
The region must prepare for “from great floods, to submerged roads, to landslides, to falling trees, to large power outages, to immediate disruption of commerce and worse and probable loss of life”specifies the NWS.
“Avoid taking the road”
The Governor of California, Democrat Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency on Wednesday morning to facilitate the emergency response and streamline the reaction of the authorities in the event of an incident. San Francisco, for its part, has set up an emergency operations center and interrupted the circulation of its famous “cable cars”, these trams with cable traction which crisscross the steep streets of the city.
“If you have no obligations, avoid taking the road”warned Rachel Gordon, an official with the municipality’s public works department.
Several schools in the city preemptively announced that they would remain closed on Thursday. Bars and restaurants chose not to open as of Wednesday and some residents were asked to work from home. Thousands of sandbags have been distributed to residents of areas at risk of flooding.
“We are very worriedSan Francisco resident Deepak Srivastava told CBS. I’ve spent the day piling sandbags in front of all the entrances to the garage, and we’re crossing our fingers that we don’t have more damage. “We had a similar flood in October [2022]sighed his wife, Denise Srivastava. They call it the storm of the century, but it looks like we’re going to have two of these in one week. »
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Northern California is indeed still suffering from the consequences of a series of storms. The latest had swept on New Year’s Eve and had caused landslides and power cuts. At least one person had died after being trapped in their car by flooding, authorities said.
Soils too dry to absorb the deluge
On December 31, 2022, San Francisco recorded the second rainiest day in its history since the launch of this measure, with 14 centimeters of precipitation. Under these conditions, the soils of the region, drained by the drought that has hit the American West for two decades, will have difficulty absorbing a new deluge, which increases the risk of flash floods.
“This storm alone could cause localized flooding and landslides.sums up meteorologist Matt Solum for Agence France-Presse. But with recent wet conditions (…), any additional rain will run down instead of being absorbed by the ground. »
The rain expected on Wednesday comes from an “atmospheric river,” a narrow, river-like band in the atmosphere that carries huge amounts of moisture from the tropics. Far from being exceptional in winter, this current phenomenon is accompanied by a “cyclonic bomb”, a system capable of causing the pressure to drop suddenly, thus generating very violent winds.
According to meteorologists, the series of storms currently battering California is not about to stop. “We are expecting another over the weekend.announced Matt Sole. And then potentially multiple storms for the next week. And possibly the following week too. »