No respite for California. Heavy rains still hit the American West on Tuesday, where successive storms have already killed 17 people, and prompted the authorities to order the evacuation of many regions. The emergency services have redoubled their efforts to try to find a five-year-old child, reported missing in the region of San Luis Obispo.
The torrential rains of the past two days on already waterlogged soils have caused extensive power cuts, numerous floods, uprooted many trees and cut off major roads, the floods sometimes carrying away motorists.
A dreaded heavier toll
The repeated storms that sweep through this western American state have caused the death of 17 Californians in recent weeks, “more than the wildfires of the last two years”, said the office of Governor Gavin Newsom in a press release. . Newsom said at least 34,000 people had been told to flee their homes.
“We are not at the end of our troubles. We expect the storms to continue at least until January 18,” he told reporters. “So far, we have 17 confirmed deaths. I emphasize this tragically because only these deaths are confirmed. »
110,000 people without electricity
In Paso Robles, a small town halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, a 5-year-old boy was swept away by the waves on Monday and remained missing, according to a statement from the sheriff.
The flood had trapped the car he was in with his mother, who was rescued by a neighbour. The authorities had to suspend their search in the afternoon on Monday because of the weather. In Bakersfield, in the center of the state, two motorists died after a tree fell on the road, according to the Los Angeles Times. On Tuesday, around 110,000 homes and businesses were without electricity, according to the specialized site PowerOutage.
New storm on Wednesday
According to the weather services (NWS), after a short respite on Tuesday evening, a new storm is expected to sweep into California on Wednesday, with up to 18 centimeters of rain expected in the north of the state.
California is currently undergoing “an endless onslaught of atmospheric rivers,” the likes of which have not been seen since 2005, according to the NWS. These “rivers of the sky,” which form with water vapor from the tropics and travel to then pour waterspouts down the west coast of the United States, are rarely so common.
North of Los Angeles, near Santa Barbara, the coastal community of Montecito, a celebrity haunt where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle live, was under an evacuation order on Monday, which ended Tuesday in the middle afternoon.
This enclave, where actress Jennifer Aniston and TV presenter Oprah Winfrey own luxurious villas, is a microcosm of the extremes to which drought-hit California has been subjected for two decades.
Five years ago, a massive fire devastated the mountains surrounding Montecito. As a result, the absence of vegetation makes it very vulnerable to landslides. In January 2018, mudslides caused by heavy rains killed 23 people.