The latest Pacific storm unleashed torrential downpours and damaging winds in California on Tuesday (January 10), a day after heightened flood and mudslide risks prompted thousands of evacuations and caused widespread power outages, Reuters reports.
More than 33 million Californians were threatened by severe weather throughout the day as "heavy to excessive" rainfall was expected 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 (NWS) 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.
In San Jose, a power line came down on top of a bakery, its cables pulling on a corresponding pole across the street that was hanging precariously in the trees over a home.
Throughout neighborhoods, tree crews used chainsaws to bring down branches and other debris, putting limbs into chipper machines.
The treacherous weather, expected to dump as much as seven inches (18 cm) of rain in some parts by Wednesday (January 11), 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.
