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Severe storms in the US state of California. Heavy rains triggered mudslides and flooded streets. At least three people died.
In some cases, more rain fell in one day than usual in months. There were power outages on Monday evening, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, especially in the Los Angeles area.
Stan Lathan, resident:
"We had heard that something like this had happened before in the 80s, but I never thought it would be this bad."
The storm affects Californians from all walks of life: there was major damage in the posh town of Beverly Hills, for example. However, people also had to be evacuated from a homeless shelter.
Cody Weireter, Los Angeles Police Department:
»With a storm of this magnitude, of course, impacts are to be expected that increase with the amount of water flowing. Because the soil is so saturated, it gets to a point where it simply can't hold any more. Then it starts moving and then you get this shift in the ground.”
The storm was triggered by a so-called “atmospheric river” – a weather phenomenon in which moist air masses flow from the Pacific to California. Because the moist air mostly comes from the region around Hawaii, the phenomenon is also called the “Pineapple Express”.
This is not the first atmospheric river for California. This is not the first atmospheric river for California. Since last winter, 46 atmospheric rivers have reached the West Coast of the USA, according to the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. However, the other 45 similar weather events had much milder impacts.
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