California in state of emergency after a series of storms

UNITED STATES – Heavy rains were still expected to hit California on Tuesday, January 10, where the storms lagged for ten days. They have already killed 12 people and prompted the authorities to order the evacuation of the town of Montecito, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle live, threatened by mudslides, on Monday.

Located an hour-and-a-half drive north of Los Angeles, this coastal city of fewer than 10,000 people is a veritable celebrity hangout. Singer Ariana Grande, actress Jennifer Aniston and TV host Oprah Winfrey also have stately homes there, but they’ve all been forced to evacuate.

Indeed, no privileges for the stars, given that a message “EVACUATE NOW!” », aimed at the entire population, was broadcast on Monday by the city’s fire department on their website, advising residents to carefully follow the various warnings from the authorities, because “The situation is changing rapidly”.

The authorities have forecast up to 20 centimeters of rain in 24 hours in the area, on hills already saturated with water from the storms of recent days. Enough to make the city, surrounded by mountains largely weakened by a fire five years ago, extremely vulnerable to landslides.

In 2017-2018, a major fire devastated around 1,100 km2 in the surrounding area. The area is therefore devoid of vegetation which usually stabilizes the soil. The evacuation order issued on Monday comes five years after 23 people died during heavy rains that triggered landslides in the city.

The stars film the damage

In Montecito, where actors Rob Lowe, Larry David, Gwyneth Paltrow and singer Katy Perry also reside, residents were evacuating their homes but it was not yet clear how many were following the evacuation order. Spokesmen for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not respond to a request for comment.

Roadblocks had been erected by police to prevent anyone from entering the city where several streets were completely flooded, noted an AFP reporter.

“Over the past 30 days, Montecito has seen between 30 and 50 inches of rain depending on location, well above our annual average of 43 inches”the firefighters recalled on Twitter. “This cumulative rain puts the community at increased risk of flooding and landslides. »

On Monday, TV host Ellen DeGeneres, who also lives in Montecito, posted a video to Twitter showing a torrent of muddy water. “That’s Crazy”she was alarmed. “This stream near our house never flows at all. »

“We must be more respectful of Mother Nature, because Mother Nature is not happy with us”she added.

Record rainfall

The area was not the only one to be evacuated on Monday, in the face of serious storms that are currently sweeping California and which have already claimed more than 12 lives. In Santa Cruz County, near San Francisco, where a pier was destroyed last week, more than 30,000 residents are also affected by an evacuation order.

Several regions have seen near-record rainfall in recent days. The ground is completely waterlogged and the US Weather Service (NWS) has issued flood warnings over much of California. In the center of the state, for example, the models predict up to 13 centimeters of precipitation, on soils that are already completely saturated with water. And the rain is expected to continue this Tuesday.

“Two major episodes of heavy rain and snow are expected in California back-to-back over the next couple of days”the NWS explained. “We expect the worst to still be ahead of us”California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who declared a state of emergency last week, told reporters Sunday.

In the evening almost 80,000 homes were left without electricity, according to the specialized site PowerOutage. Last week’s storm had already cut power to tens of thousands of people and caused severe flooding and landslides. It had arrived a few days after another deluge of rain on New Year’s Eve.

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