More heavy rain has hit California as the latest in a series of storms swamped roads and battered coastlines, turning rivers into gushing flood zones and forcing the evacuation of thousands in towns with histories of deadly mudslides.
At least 14 people have died since the storms began last week.
The storm prompted a few tornado warnings early on Tuesday and was expected to bring heavy snow to the Sierra Nevada a day after dumping up to 14in of rain at higher elevations in central and southern California.
After a brief respite, another storm was expected to barrel into the state on Wednesday, adding to the misery and further saturating areas already at risk of flooding and debris flows.
A five-year-old boy vanished in floodwaters on Monday on the central coast. The boy’s mother was driving a truck when it became stranded near Paso Robles.
Bystanders managed to pull her free but the boy was swept out of the truck and carried away, probably into a river, said Tom Swanson, assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.
A roughly seven-hour search for the missing boy turned up only his shoe before officials called it off as water levels were too dangerous for divers.
About 130 miles to the south, 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Santa Barbara County.
The entire seaside community of Montecito — home to Harry and Meghan, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities — was ordered to flee on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave.
County officials ordered 20 homes to be evacuated in the area of Orcutt after flooding and a sinkhole damaged up to 15 homes.
The storms threatened coastal and riverside towns and left more than 200,000 homes and businesses without power early on Tuesday, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
The weather service issued a flood watch through Tuesday for the entire San Francisco Bay Area, along with Sacramento Valley and Monterey Bay. Areas hit by wildfires in recent years faced the possibility of mud and debris sliding off denuded hillsides that have yet to fully recover their protective layer of vegetation.
The storm — the latest extreme weather event to kick off 2023 — was expected to bring enough rain to exacerbate flooding and heighten the risk of mudslides, forecasters said.
Forecasters also warned south-western California could see 60mph wind gusts at the peak of the storm, while some areas could receive rainfall of 13mm per hour.
The death toll from the storms that began last week climbed from 12 to 14 on Monday after two people including a homeless person were killed by falling trees, state officials said.
California state highway authorities said that parts of US and state highways were closed because of flooding, mud or rockslides, heavy snow or car and lorry crashes.
Evacuation orders were issued in Santa Cruz County for about 32,000 residents living near rain-swollen rivers and creeks. The San Lorenzo River was declared at flood stage and drone footage showed numerous homes sitting in muddy brown water, with the top halves of cars peeking out.
