At a Glance
- One person was injured.
- Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were without power.
- A wind gust of 121 mph was recorded.
About two dozen homes were damaged and one person injured in mudslides Wednesday in Monterey County, California.
Emergency crews were assisting affected homeowners, according to the Monterey County Regional Fire Protection District.
"Firefighters from MCRFD and assisting fire agencies continue to assess properties that have been affected by mud flows," the agency said on Twitter. "So far, we have identified 20-25 homes & outbuildings that have some minor to severe damage. One resident was injured while escaping her home.
Earlier, more than 400,000 homes and businesses were without electricity after powerful winds ushered in rain, snow and the potential for deadly mudslides and flooding.
Fire officials in San Mateo County said they responded to several calls of downed trees overnight. Thousands of residents in some communities there and in neighboring Santa Cruz County were under evacuation orders due to the threat of debris flows, a dangerous type of mudslide that is more likely to happen in areas burned by wildfires.
Some fire-scarred parts of Monterey County were also under evacuation orders.
The weather is being fueled by an atmospheric river – a thin, long plume of moisture – that is expected to stall over the region for the next 24 hours or so and is also driving snow that is part of Winter Storm Orlena.
(MORE: California Atmospheric River Bringing Threat of Flooding, Debris Flows and Feet of Snow)
A wind gust of 121 mph was recorded at 8,700 feet elevation at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento. Gusts in excess of 50 mph were recorded at several lower-elevation locations across Northern California.
Trees blocked roads and knocked down power lines. Winds blew apart outdoor dining areas set up amidst COVID-19 restrictions, KTXL-TV reported.
A tractor-trailer overturned Tuesday night on Interstate 80's Yolo Causeway, which connects the cities of Davis and West Sacramento. The incident happened around 10:15 p.m., according to the Sacramento Bee.
Power outages peaked at more than 400,000 early Wednesday morning. About 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power as of about 2 p.m. PST Wednesday, according to poweroutage.us. More than 50,000 had been out in Oregon but that number dropped to around 6,500.
Earlier, the Monterey Regional Fire Protection District said it had responded to at least one call of mud and boulders covering a road. A photo showed mud against a home in the same area.
Officials warned the rain could cause fast-moving, deadly debris flows, informally known as mudslides. The threat is especially high in areas recently scarred by wildfires, like San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties where the CZU Lightning Complex scorched more than 135 square miles of land after it started in August amid record heat and drought.
About 260 of the 2,800 households told to evacuate in Santa Cruz County on Tuesday refused to leave as sheriff's deputies went door to door warning them of the threat, sheriff's office spokeswoman Ashley Keehn told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
“When people do that they run the risk of being trapped and of needing help and not being able to get a hold of help because the power’s out and phone lines are down and they can’t get a hold of emergency personnel when they need them,” Keehn said.
“If they do get a hold of us but there is an active debris flow in an area, that could physically block our rescue crews from getting in to them.”
Those who said they were staying put were asked to sign a refusal waiver.
The Red Cross set up an evacuation center at San Lorenzo Valley High School. People aren't allowed to stay inside overnight, but they can sleep in their cars or some other type of camping set up.
Local resident Ralph Pilland told the Sentinel that he and his wife live near the Boulder Creek Community Church and were told to evacuate because of the debris flow risk. Like many others in the area, they also evacuated for the CZU Lightning Complex fire.
“We’re worried about being blocked in because just south of us is a burned cliffside, and we could be trapped there for a while,” Pilland said.
Search and rescue crews and other emergency personnel were staged ahead of the threat.
Experts had warned in October that wildfires left parts of California facing a high risk of mudslides going into the rainy season, and San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties were listed as being among the most vulnerable areas.
"A debris flow is kind of a flood on steroids," Jason Kean, a debris flow expert with the U.S. Geological Survey, told weather.com in an October interview. "It's all bulked up with rocks, mud, even boulders, and boulders can be the size of cars."
Wildfires destroy vegetation that would normally hold soil and debris in place. They also change the characteristics of the soil itself, making it less likely to absorb water. That can lead to flash flooding and mudslides, which can threaten lives and wipe out neighborhoods.
In 2018, at least 20 people died when mudslides with walls of debris as tall as 30 feet struck the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito. On average, 25 to 50 people are killed by landslides every year in the United States, according to the USGS.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
