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LOS ANGELES — Evacuations were ordered Thursday in wildfire burn areas prone to mudslides as an atmospheric river storm pumped drenching rain into Southern California while blizzard conditions buried the Sierra Nevada in snow.
After barrelling ashore Tuesday in Northern California, the storm took aim like a massive firehose at the central coast, where the two-day rainfall total neared 14 inches (35.5 centimetres) in San Luis Obispo County, the National Weather Service said.
The system then dropped into Southern California, bringing threats of flash floods and debris flows to areas scorched by recent blazes.
About 8,200 people were under orders to evacuate foothill neighbourhoods beneath the burn scar of last summer’s El Dorado Fire near Yucaipa. Deputies went door to door urging people to leave in the Oak Glen area.
“We’ve given an evacuation order. You need to heed it,” San Bernardino County Fire Division Chief Grant Malinowski said during a news conference. “Don’t wait, do it now.”
Evacuation orders were also in place for hillside communities in neighbouring Riverside County. Meanwhile, the California Office of Emergency Services positioned specialized response strike teams and task forces in 11 counties.
In the Eastern Sierra, Mammoth Mountain ski resort reported 7.25 feet (2.21 metres) of new snow on its summit. A blizzard warning remained in effect for the range on both sides of the California-Nevada border.
The California Highway Patrol closed a 75-mile (120-kilometre) stretch of Interstate 80 following multiple spinouts along the key route east of Sacramento to the Nevada border west of Reno. No injuries were reported. U.S. Highway 395 remained closed from near Bishop north to the California-Nevada border.
“I would not venture into the Sierra if you don’t have to.” National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Hoon in Reno tweeted.
Firefighters northwest of Lake Tahoe rescued a 14-year-old boy who was buried under 5 feet (1.5 metres) of snow that slid from the roof of his home Wednesday night. He wasn’t seriously injured. The Truckee Fire Protection District said the teen was playing in a snow cave in the Serene Lakes area at the time.
Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of water vapour that form over an ocean and flow through the sky. They occur globally but are especially significant on the West Coast of the United States, where they create 30% to 50% of annual precipitation and are linked to water supply and problems such as flooding and mudslides, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Mudslides near Salinas south of the San Francisco Bay Area caused by the current storm damaged about two dozen rural ranch homes beneath hillsides scorched by the River Fire last August. One woman was treated for broken bones after mud went through a house. Fifty horses were rescued.
Flash-flood watches remained in effect through Thursday afternoon for a wide area encircling the San Francisco Bay Area. In Santa Cruz County, evacuation orders for about 5,000 people were downgraded to a warning, meaning people should be ready to go.
Pacific Gas & Electric was working to restore power after reconnecting about 75% of the 575,000 customers who lost electricity Tuesday and Wednesday.
About 1,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in northern Nevada, where the effects of the storm also forced school closures in several counties.
The atmospheric river is part of a major change in weather for California, which had significant drought conditions for months. The dryness contributed to wildfires that scorched more than 4.2 million acres (17,000 square kilometres) in 2020, the most in recorded modern history.
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Sonner reported from Reno, Nevada. Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.
John Antczak And Scott Sonner, The Associated Press
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