Mudslides and flooding reported throughout Los Angeles

Mudslides and severe flooding were reported in Los Angeles on Sunday evening as a storm making its way into Southern California after battering northern parts of the state was forecast to bring another day of heavy rain and winds.

“The major wind and power outages will be the less dangerous part of the storm compared to what is about to unfold and is starting to unfold in Southern California,” said Dr. Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Angeles, said during an online briefing Sunday evening. “If you're worried about the north, I'm more worried about the south and what's to come.”

There were mudslides on all canyon roads in and out of Malibu, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. And in the Studio City neighborhood, firefighters had evacuated six people from two homes as water swept debris into the area, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Officials warned the worst was likely yet to come, with heavy rain expected over at least the next 24 hours.

The danger, they said, did not primarily arise from the wind destroying power lines or trees (although thousands have been without power since Sunday evening). Rather, the danger stemmed from the path of the atmospheric river, a huge plume of moisture that meteorologists said would linger over one of the country's most populated regions.

“I don't think the rain will let up in the next 24 to 36 hours,” said Dr. Swain earlier on Sunday.

On Sunday, meteorologists and officials urged Los Angeles residents to brace for flooded streets in the valleys and mudslides in the mountains. The entire province, home to almost 10 million people, was warned of flash flooding until midnight.

More than four inches of rain had fallen in the Santa Monica Mountains by Sunday evening, with totals rising at rates of more than half an inch per hour, according to Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in northern Oxnard. of Los Angeles.

And when rain falls on the mountains in large quantities, it flows downhill, sometimes taking the saturated land with it, and pooling in low-lying areas, such as the vast expanse of the San Fernando Valley, flooding intersections and streets. Rivers and streams can swell, overflow their banks and flood surrounding neighborhoods.

“There are a lot of hours of rain involved,” Mr Sirard said.

Soumya Karlamangla reporting contributed.