Two people became victims of bad weather.
A powerful storm accompanied by heavy rains that hit the West Coast of the United States on Sunday left hundreds of thousands of private homes and businesses without power, flooded dozens of streets, and led to the death of at least two people, CBS reported on Monday.
In California, more than 160 thousand homes and buildings were left without electricity; in Oregon – about 28 thousand, in Washington state – more than 170 thousand. In the greater Seattle area, two people became victims of bad weather – a large tree, washed away by water flows; fell on the car in which they were.
In some coastal settlements, the height of the water that flooded them was 50-60 cm. During Sunday, the emergency services received more than 330 calls for line assistance, which is four times higher than the average daily rate of such signals on normal days. In the capital of California, Sacramento, according to the local office of the U.S. National Weather Service, a record amount of precipitation may have fallen in less than a day.
“Weather conditions will continue to deteriorate,” the TV channel quotes the statement of local forecasters. “Strong gusts of wind, high waves, and torrential rains will have a seriously destructive impact.” A similar warning was issued by the California Department of Transportation, urging residents of the state to refrain from traveling by private transport on Monday. “Floods, landslides, overturned cars, and this is just last morning,” CBS cites the department’s Sunday warning. – The storm is expected only to intensify, aggravated by heavy rains and snowfall tomorrow. Refrain from traveling unless they are caused by extreme necessity.”
Nevertheless, the TV company noted, despite such bad weather and its consequences, the rains that came to this region ahead of schedule were greeted with relief by many residents of the West Coast. Over the past few weeks, California and some other territories have been hit by severe drought, which has led to the emergence of large-scale forest fires – both in this state and in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Washington.
The California authorities even had to declare an emergency due to the drought and evacuate tens of thousands of residents at different times to save them from the rapidly spreading fire – more than 800 thousand hectares of land were burned in the state. Now, as stated, all these fires are 100% under control. “The storms will successfully end the wildfire season in this region,” a representative of the local weather service told the broadcaster. – These rains came almost a month ahead of schedule. They will be very welcome in the fight against ongoing fires, especially in Northern California.”
