ISLAMABAD/LOS ANGELES: At least five people were killed in and around San Francisco after a new bout of harsh and wintry weather lashed California before drifting into neighbouring states of the Desert Southwest on Wednesday.
Authorities reported five storm-related deaths in and around San Francisco, all from fallen trees.
According to officials and local media reports, five citizens were killed by trees toppled by fast winds across California’s Bay area, two in San Francisco, one in Oakland, and one each in San Mateo County and Contra Costa County. Two victims died in their cars, and one was crushed inside a tent.
As the onslaught of rain, fast wind and mountain snow subsided, downed power lines from Tuesday’s storm left more than 92,000 houses and businesses in California without electricity as of Wednesday afternoon. At the same time, lingering floods kept 14,000 people under evacuation orders.
According to a spokesperson for the California Office of Emergency Services, Diana Crofts-Pelayo, nearly 48,000 other people have been warned to be ready to flee to higher ground in case rain-swollen streams overflow their banks.
A bulk of mandatory evacuation orders, covering some 12,000 citizens, were issued in Tulare County, the flood-stricken region in the San Joaquin Valley, where water from recent levee failures has inundated several communities.
Heavy storm
The heavy storm was the product of yet another in the recent succession of “atmospheric rivers”, huge airborne currents of dense water vapour carried aloft from the ocean and flowing overland in heavy rain and snow.
It marked the twelfth storm to sweep the West Coast since late December, the latest one notable for extreme winds that accompanied the precipitation and, in some areas, wreaked the most havoc.
