WATCH: A heavy rainfall caused mudslides in Southern California, forcing evacuations Friday. Jay Gray reports.
LOS ANGELES – A dangerous storm system blamed for two deaths in Oregon, thousands of power outages in Washington and flooded roadways in the San Francisco Bay Area pushed into Southern California on Friday, causing mudslides and evacuations.
A powerful squall line led the storm’s pre-dawn charge, lashing the region with wind-driven rain. Rain fell at the rate of up to 5 centimetres an hour, triggering flash flooding, the National Weather Service said.
Avalanches of mud and debris blocked part of the Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County, weather service specialist Stuart Seto said. Street and freeway flooding snarled morning rush-hour traffic and triggered numerous accidents.
Mudflows in two areas stripped bare by wildfire forced people from their homes.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for 124 homes, northwest of Los Angeles, Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. Don Aguilar said. Some people needed help leaving because of property damage, but no injuries were reported in the area burned by a blaze last year.
WATCH: A dangerous storm system pushed into Southern California on Friday, causing mudslides and evacuations. In hard hit Camarillo Springs, about 80 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, mandatory evacuations were ordered for 124 homes.
The storm’s powerful winds caused power outages around Santa Barbara and other parts of the coast, and forecasters predicted the winds would pick up speed.
On Thursday, the centre of the storm and its torrential rains hit the San Francisco Bay Area and the surrounding region, pushing waterways toward flood stage, toppling trees and cutting power to thousands.
In Oregon, the winds proved deadly. A falling tree killed a homeless man who was sleeping on a trail, and a teenage boy died after a large tree fell on the vehicle in which he was riding, causing it to swerve and hit another tree.
Falling trees also injured a man in southwest Washington and a sixth-grader at an elementary school in Santa Cruz, California.
This Pineapple Express storm carried warm air and vast amounts of water in a powerful current stretching from Hawaii to the West Coast and up into the mountains, where gusts up to 140 mph (225 kph) blew through passes.
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Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz and Ellen Knickmeyer and Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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