Flooding in California as more winds are set to hit battered Northwest
Forecasters warned of more high winds headed to the battered Pacific Northwest, while an atmospheric river continued to dump heavy rain on California.
More than 200,000 homes and businesses in Washington state, which was hit this week by winds of up to around 70 mph as part of a “bomb cyclone” off the coast, remained without electricity Thursday night, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us.
Two people were killed by falling trees in the state in that storm, which began Tuesday, officials said.
And more high winds are on the way for the Pacific Northwest, in the forecast range of 45 to 65 mph starting Friday because of a low pressure system offshore, the National Weather Service said.
“Power outages are possible and unsecured items may get blown over,” the agency warned.
In California, an “atmospheric river” dumped more rain on the northern part of the state. The biggest risk of life-threatening floods was forecast for Thursday, but flooding will remain a threat through Friday, the weather service said.
Santa Rosa, a city of around 170,000 in California’s Sonoma County north of San Francisco, got more than 10 inches of rain over 48 hours by Thursday evening, the city said. Roads and parking lots flooded, and the police department asked everyone to avoid unnecessary travel.
In the Sierra Nevada, the storm was bringing snow. The California Highway Patrol in Truckee said a semi slid off the highway Thursday, and earlier in the week parts of important Interstate 5 near the Oregon border were closed. They have since reopened.
Landslides and rockslides shut down some or all traffic lanes on highways in Humboldt and Lake counties, the weather service in Eureka, California, said.
Including parts of California, around 14 million people were under winter storm warnings or winter weather advisories Thursday night, although only around 2.5 million were under warnings, according to the meteorological agency’s website.
Snow is on the way in New York state and Pennsylvania courtesy of “a potent upper-level low swinging over the region,” the weather service said.
New York City wasn’t under any advisories, but northeastern New Jersey and the lower Hudson Valley were, and some areas could get up to 4 inches of snow or a snow and rain mix, forecasters for the region said.
The Johnstown, Pennsylvania, area, which could get up to a foot of snow accumulation, was under a winter weather warning until 7 a.m. Saturday, with the highest amounts expected for ridgetops, the weather service said.
The upstate New York regions of Binghamton and Ithaca could get around 1 to 4 inches of snow in the valleys and up to a foot at higher elevations above 1,500 feet. The area was under a winter weather warning until 4 p.m. Friday.
