California floods: US state hit by intense storms and floods
- Published
Around 25 million people in California are under a flood watch this weekend as the latest in a series of deadly storms drenches the state.
Cities all around California have been affected - here you can see a damaged road in the Santa Cruz mountains.
And the floods have caused mudslides in some parts of the state too...
... which has led to lots of vehicles getting stuck in the mud.
Creeks in Montecito, home to big celebrities like Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Oprah, have flooded into roadways. The entire seaside community had been ordered to evacuate by local authorities - and although this order has now been lifted, the risk of flooding and landslides is very real.
Earlier this week 118,000 people were without power - but that number fell to 68,000 on Saturday morning and cut by more than half during the afternoon.
Although the situation has been improving for some areas, the Governor of California Gavin Newsom, says Santa Barbara is a "hot spot" he's concerned about in the coming days.
In Salinas, an area famous for its valley and farmland everything was underwater after the Salinas River overflowed its banks.
Landslides triggered by the storms have damaged roads but people have been working together to try and help clear them.
It's the wettest two-week period California has ever seen. The National Weather Service (NWS) in the US has described it as "the most impressive storm since January 2005".
- Published2 October 2019
- Published15 November 2023
- Published20 January 2020
