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Gallery|Weather

Landslides, sinkholes, floods plague storm-hit California

California deals with more wild winter weather that has killed at least 17 people since the storms began last month.

california weather
The Riviera Holiday Mobile Estates in in Merced, California was flooded after another wave of storms. [Lipo Ching/EPA]
Published On 11 Jan 202311 Jan 2023
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Sinkholes swallowed cars and floodwaters swamped towns and swept away a small boy as the US state of California was wracked by more wild winter weather, while the next in a powerful string of storms loomed on the horizon.

Millions of residents faced flood warnings, nearly 50,000 people were under evacuation orders, and more than 110,000 homes and businesses were without power on Tuesday because of heavy rains, lightning, hail and landslides.

At least 17 people have died from storms that began late last month, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

The storm that began Monday dumped more than  45 centimetres (a foot and a half) of rain in Southern California mountains and buried Sierra Nevada ski resorts in more than 1.5 metres (five feet) of snow.

Rockfalls and landslides shut down roads, and gushing runoff turned sections of freeways into waterways.

Swollen rivers swamped homes and residents of small communities inundated with water and mud were stranded.

Raging waters crested the banks of Bear Creek and flooded parts of the city of Merced and neighbouring Planada, a small agricultural community along a highway leading to Yosemite National Park.

Neighbourhoods were under water with cars submerged up to their roofs.

Residents ordered to evacuate carried whatever they could salvage on their backs as they left in the rain.

california weather
Storm debris sits along the beach near a sand-covered parking lot in Aptos, California. [Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP]
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california weather
CalTrans workers chip away at a huge boulder that fell on Malibu Canyon Road in Malibu. [David Swanson/Reuters]
california weather
A freeway signboard informs drivers of severe weather as they travel along the interstate I5 highway near Irvine. [Mike Blake/Reuters]
california weather
A power line, brought down by a storm, is seen atop the roof of a liquor store in San Jose. [Nathan Frandino/Reuters]
california weather
Several people had to be rescued after two vehicles fell into a sinkhole in Chatsworth. [David Swanson/Reuters]
california weather
A boulder rests where it fell into the main compartment of a vehicle parked along the Pacific Coastal Highway in Malibu. [David Swanson/Reuters]
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california weather
A worker clearing debris puts a tree branch into a chipper after the storm in San Jose. [Nathan Frandino/Reuters]
california weather
A CalTrans worker inspects the embankment of a road that was washed out by an atmospheric river storm system in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos. [Nathan Frandino/Reuters]

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