500,000 lose power in California; next atmospheric river may be worse

Hundreds of thousands of Californians were without electricity Sunday, another result of deadly storms that are expected to further drench the state in the coming days.

Rain and snow continued Sunday morning from the atmospheric river that arrived Saturday and brought its most intense weather Saturday night. It unleashed high-speed winds that contributed to more than a half-million customers being without power early Sunday, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us – about 4% of the 13.1 million customers across California served by utilities that the website tracks. By 1 p.m., the number of outages had fallen to about 338,000.

The bulk of the outages were reported in Sacramento County, where winds toppled trees and power lines. Sacramento International Airport clocked a gust of 70 mph.

Sacramento County urged people to flee the Wilton area because of “imminent” flooding Sunday morning.

Falling trees killed one person and seriously injured another Saturday night, according to Capt. Keith Wade of the Sacramento Fire Department.

The woman who died had been staying in a tent just off where a levee system meets the American River. Members of the large unhoused community that camp along the levee system moved the tree off her tent before firefighters arrived, Wade said. She was declared dead at a hospital.

Wade said a fallen tree also landed on a car, seriously injuring a passenger.

Wade said the downed trees caused not only death and injury but serious traffic disruption. “I’ve never seen in 22 years here this amount of tree debris here and downed trees from a storm moving through,” he said.

The combination of roots made shallow by years of drought and soil saturated by recent heavy rain make it easier for trees to topple, Wade said. His department has not been able to keep up with demand, and things will get worse before they improve.

Wade said the department’s 16-member swift-water rescue team is preparing for wind gusts up to 40 mph and 2 to 3 more inches of rain into mid-Monday.

Emergency services have been inundated with calls, but he can’t quantify how many because the city’s system for fire and police response went down about 2 a.m. Sunday. That has left firefighters to hand-write addresses given to them from dispatchers so they can respond.

He said about noon local time that they were close to getting the system back up.

In Santa Cruz, south of San Francisco, a fallen tree also killed a 72-year-old man, according to Mayor Fred Keeley.

City workers are in emergency mode and prepared for water rescues, Keeley (D) said, but he worries about keeping infrastructure operational, including the storm sewer, drains and gutters. He told The Washington Post that Santa Cruz is prepared to use a National Guard armory to shelter up to 500 people who are experiencing homelessness, and to provide tents for those who prefer to live outside.

Keeley said his city and state have a “front-row seat to climate change” and the devastation it brings.

The state has responded as well as it can, he said, but Washington has not caught up.

“They are behind as usual,” Keeley said. “The federal government is stuck in what I would call the old-school FEMA response to things as opposed to marshaling the Army Corps of Engineers and starting to look forward about what we need to do.”

FEMA did not immediately respond to the Washington Post’s request for comment.

Robert Wilson, 24, of Santa Cruz, said he hopes storms like this one will not become the norm.

“When I first moved to Santa Cruz shortly after the historic CZU (Lightning Complex) fire I was skeptical, but overall you take a risk wherever you decide to live,” Wilson said. “Santa Cruz has a good record of handling emergencies, which increases my confidence in being here, and storms like this are few and far between.”

Mayor Darrell Steinberg (D) said Sacramento has “cleared hundreds of trees and thousands of storm drains” in preparation for the storms.

“Today we are gearing up for the next wave of storms and urging all of those still outdoors to please go to a respite center or at least get to higher ground away from trees and bodies of water.”

The city has offered beds and respite centers since Wednesday and plans to continue through Thursday morning.

Michael Anderson, state climatologist for California’s Department of Water Resources, said during a Saturday briefing that the string of storms began Dec. 27 and is expected to continue until Jan. 19. The storm anticipated Monday and Tuesday is the second of five, he said, “and also the one that has our largest concerns right now.”

Forecast models don’t agree on the strength and location of the third, fourth and fifth storms, Anderson said. “But,” he added, “we have an indication something’s out there.”

Like its predecessors, the coming storm is an intense atmospheric river, or strip of deep tropical moisture. It is expected to flood lowland areas in the region, rile surf at the beaches, and bring heavy snow and winds over 100 mph near mountaintops.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) scheduled a news conference for Sunday afternoon to discuss the storm, according to his office.

The National Weather Service called for residents to follow local forecasts, avoid driving across flooded roadways and have an emergency evacuation kit and plan ready for this week’s storms.

In California’s Central Valley and near the coast, 2 to 4 inches of rain is likely, while up to 9 inches could fall in the foothills through Wednesday. Flood watches are plastered over most of central and Northern California, along with wind advisories warning of gusts over 40 to 50 mph.

The state has been inundated with rain in recent weeks. An atmospheric river soaked Northern and central California on New Year’s Eve, knocking out power and stranding some people in flooded cars.

In 13 days, San Francisco has picked up 11.16 inches, the wettest stretch the city has recorded since 1871.

On Dec. 31, 5.46 inches of rain fell, the second-wettest calendar day on record since bookkeeping began in 1849.

“All main stem rivers are forecast to be near or above flood stage by Monday afternoon/evening,” the National Weather Service Bay Area office wrote. A few rivers could reach record levels.

The Weather Service’s national center responsible for precipitation forecasts wrote that some areas could see amounts that occur once every five to 10 years on average. A large area of central and Northern California has a 40% to 70% chance of flash flooding within 25 miles of any given location.

The Sierra Nevada can expect 3 to 6 feet of snow above 6,000-foot elevations Monday into Tuesday. Winds of 80 mph are likely too, and gusts of 100 to 130 mph can’t be ruled out on the Sierra ridgeline.

Below 7,000 feet, the precipitation will start as snow and flip to rain, causing the snowpack to become water-loaded, which will increase avalanche risk. In softer precipitation Monday night, temperatures will cool and the elevation at which it’s below freezing will descend as another batch of precipitation arrives into Tuesday morning.

“Widespread avalanche activity in the mountains” is expected, according to the National Weather Service in Reno, Nev. “Large destructive avalanches could occur in a variety of areas.”

Weather models are indicating the potential for a few lightning strikes Monday night, which could lead to thundersnow, posing a danger to skiers and enhancing snowfall rates. Accumulations of more than 5 inches per hour can’t be ruled out during the peak of the storm.

Anderson, the climatologist, said the rain that has fallen over California in the previous week makes for “some pretty astounding numbers.”

“What may be more impressive are the next six days coming,” he said. “You look at those numbers – just as large as what we’ve been through, and this unrelenting pace of storms, and some really large numbers.”