‘Pineapple Express’ Storm is Causing Evacuations in California

12 Dec, 2014

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 1 to 2 inches an hour, triggering flash flooding, the National Weather Service said. The main front followed with rain falling at rates of a tenth to about a third of an inch per hour.

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 in Camarillo Springs, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. Don Aguilar said. He said there was some damage from a mudflow, but officials were assessing its scope. Some people needed help leaving because of property damage, but no injuries were reported in the area burned by a blaze last year.

Forty people displaced by the mudslide came to an evacuation center, and two were taken to the hospital, Red Cross spokesman Tom Horan said. Their medical issues weren’t serious, he said.

Farther east in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora, the site of the devastating Colby Fire in January, a debris flow was sending rocks the size of golf balls and bricks down streets, police Lt. Matt Williams said. Five people were using an evacuation center but the exact number of people who fled their homes isn’t yet known, he said. No injuries or damage to homes were immediately reported.

Possible slides in the neighboring city of Azusa on the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains led to some evacuations.

In Orange County, sheriff’s deputies went door to door before dawn to tell residents of fire-scarred Silverado Canyon to evacuate because of rainfall predictions.

Amtrak suspended service between Los Angeles and the central coast city of San Luis Obispo.

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 center 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.

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 blew through passes.

AP

Image Paul Chinn

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