Slow-moving Pacific storm threatens to bring California flooding and mudslides

By JOHN ANTCZAK and STEFANIE DAZIO

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Heavy rains drenched parts of California on Wednesday, bringing the threat of flooding and mudslides as millions of people geared up for holiday travel, the National Weather Service said.

The Pacific storm centered offshore was moving gradually southeastward, sending bands of rain ashore and hitting particularly hard on the central coast after sweeping through the San Francisco Bay Area. Flood watches were posted all the way south to San Diego.

California’s rain came as the Northeast battled the effects of storms that brought floods and downed trees, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands and killing at least five people.

More than 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain had fallen by late morning in the Santa Ynez Mountains — the steep backdrop to the south Santa Barbara County’s “American Riviera” communities — and more bands of heavy rain were expected to follow.

The stormy weather came as millions of Californians geared up for holiday travel and finished preparations for Christmas, with the Automobile Club of Southern California predicting 9.5 million people in that region would travel during the year-end holiday period.

However, so far the rain hadn’t drenched the shopping season.

Employees at Skylight Books, an independent bookstore in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, were worried about the impact of the storm. But on Wednesday, general manager Mary Williams said the store was packed.

“I think after last winter’s deluge, Angelenos have decided to go out in the rain after all,” she said. “I guess buying presents for the holidays is just that important.”

At Whiskey & Leather in Montecito, near coastal Santa Barbara northwest of Los Angeles, manager Karina Cota said Wednesday’s rain had prompted customers to start and finish their Christmas shopping at the boutique to avoid going to other places in the downpour.

“They’re coming in and just want to get it over with,” she said. “They’re trying to do it all in one shot.”

In the coastal LA suburb of Long Beach, family-owned Todd’s Christmas Trees prepares each season for Southern California’s late-year heat waves and stores their trees under a giant tent to keep them from drying out. It was a coincidence that the tent also protected the trees during Wednesday’s rains.

“It kind of works out perfectly,” Mike Todd said. He expected to sell out again this year, even with the bad weather.

“People will come, as they say,” he said.

California is well aware of storm risks: In January 2018, a downpour on a wildfire burn scar unleashed massive debris flows through Montecito, destroying homes and killing 23 people.

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department increased staffing for the deluge but there were no evacuation orders for residents, said spokesperson Scott Safechuck.

“Our creeks are not showing any signs of having any issues (handling runoff) so we’re in a good position here, but we are expecting 5 to as much as 10 inches (12.7-25.4 centimeters) in the next 24 to 36 hours,” Safechuck said.

The storm, more powerful and widespread than one that blew in earlier in the week, was expected to jumpstart a laggard rainy season just a year after California was inundated by a series of atmospheric rivers that refilled reservoirs that had been emptied by a prolonged drought.

“It’s been balmily warm and unusually dry really throughout the state the past couple of weeks,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who spoke during an online briefing Tuesday.

Swain noted that the storm was very unstable, and at times on Wednesday, forecasters issued marine warnings for coastal waters due to severe thunderstorms capable of producing waterspouts.

The pace of the storm also was proving difficult to forecast. The San Diego-area weather office pushed back the timing of the heaviest rain there to Thursday and Friday.

Flood watches were issued from the central California coast to San Diego with warnings of a high risk of roadway flooding that could prompt travel delays, as well as rockslides, mudslides and debris flows from wildfire burn scars. The severe weather could pose a problem for some of the 9.5 million Southern Californians that the Auto Club predicts will be traveling for the holidays.

The relative warmth of the storm meant that snowfall would be mostly limited to high elevations in the southern Sierra Nevada and some Southern California ranges.

The California Highway Patrol office in South Lake Tahoe said in social media posts that the storm, nonetheless, was “making a mess,” producing rain, sleet, snow and icy roads.