A storm that prompted thousands of evacuations and killed at least 14 continued to batter California on Tuesday, as severe weather rolled in from the Pacific — and more is expected in the days to come.
More than 33 million people remained under threat from “heavy to excessive” rainfall, the National Weather Service, or NWS, said of the "onslaught of atmospheric river events".
More than 151,000 households and businesses were without power on Tuesday afternoon, tracker PowerOutage showed.
"Back-to-back atmospheric river events continue to hammer California and pose flooding threats," the NWS said in its latest forecast on Tuesday.
"Radar showed widespread moderate to heavy rainfall across much of California this afternoon.
"Heavy precipitation will continue for much of California through tonight, and scattered to widespread instances of flash flooding will be possible …"
The torrential rain is expected to continue into the week.
"There will be a brief break in the rainfall in the West late tonight before the next atmospheric river arrives Wednesday," the NWS said.
The NWS in Los Angeles reported record levels of rain on Tuesday at Santa Barbara Airport (10.71cm), Santa Maria Airport (8.68cm), Paso Robles Airport (3cm) and in the city of Sandberg (6.83cm).
“Nearly all of California has seen much above average rainfall totals over the past several weeks,” the NWS said.
In the Rancho Oso area of the Santa Ynez Mountains, mud and debris across the roadway isolated about 400 people and 70 horses, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said on Twitter.
Near the coast, the California Highway Patrol closed the 101 motorway, the main artery connecting northern and southern California, with no estimated time on reopening.
San Francisco, already soaked from previous rain, had a downpour and even hail under a flash-flood warning.
There were reports of flooding in Los Angeles, including metro stations in the city. Falling boulders and mudslides plagued the posh celebrity enclaves of Malibu and Laurel Canyon.
The storm also caused a large sinkhole in Orange Country that trapped a woman and a young girl in a vehicle on Monday night. The two were rescued by firefighters and are expected to recover from injuries.
Residents of the cities of Santa Monica, Inglewood and Hawthorne were advised on Tuesday morning to seek shelter as 86kph gusts were expected to sweep through the region.
Montecito, the seaside community that is home to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, and Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres and other celebrities, was ordered to evacuate on the fifth anniversary of deadly mudslides there.
Montecito was one of 17 areas in the state that officials said could be threatened by mudslides and other disasters.
A seven-hour search for a missing boy, 5, swept away by floodwaters was called off on Monday night because water levels were too dangerous for divers.
The boy has not yet been declared dead, according to San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy’s mother was driving a vehicle that became stranded in floodwaters near Paso Robles, a small inland city.
Although bystanders were able to pull the mother out, the boy was swept out of the vehicle and downstream, probably into a river, officials said.
At least 14 people have been killed in the extreme weather, according to state officials.
The series of storms since the end of December is one of the biggest tests yet for disaster-weary California, which has endured wildfires and extreme heat in recent years, fuelled by global warming.
“California is experiencing coincidentally a drought emergency and a flood emergency,” Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said on Monday.
Highway 1, the route to the state’s renowned coastal area of Big Sur, was closed after a mudslide, according to the state's Department of Transport. Parts of Highway 101 and Interstate 505 were also shut.
These are just a few of several major thoroughfares and small country roads closed because of flooding, from the state capital Sacramento in the north to Los Angeles-area beach towns in the south.
By Monday afternoon the state had opened a dozen emergency shelters for those told to evacuate, including in Santa Cruz County, about 121km south of San Francisco, where the San Lorenzo River rose 5.4 metres since Sunday.
Levels on the river have peaked but there will be another round of intense rain, said Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
On Sunday, Sacramento County told about 3,300 people in the Central Valley town of Wilton to leave because of the risk of flooding if levies overflow.
Five rivers are being monitored for flooding. These include the Cosumnes River in Sacramento County and the Russian River in Napa and Mendocino counties in Northern California, said Jeremy Arrich, a manager at the Department of Water Resources.
“Several more feet of snow” was expected to pile up in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range in eastern California, the NWS said. Avalanche warnings have also been posted until Wednesday.
“Any steep slopes could be dangerous,” it added.
The storm is another in a series of atmospheric river events — long streams of moisture that can stretch for thousands of kilometres across the Pacific.
These can deliver as much water as flows through the mouth of the Mississippi when they release rain on California’s mountains.
The storms already have caused more than $1 billion in losses and damages, according to an estimate by AccuWeather.
The latest storms in California follow a costly trend of destructive extreme weather events last year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said each of last year's 18 extreme weather events caused at least $1 billion in damage, totalling more than $165 billionr.
The agency said the disasters had resulted in at least 474 deaths.
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Match info
Australia 580
Pakistan 240 and 335
Result: Australia win by an innings and five runs
What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
England's all-time record goalscorers:
Wayne Rooney 53
Bobby Charlton 49
Gary Lineker 48
Jimmy Greaves 44
Michael Owen 40
Tom Finney 30
Nat Lofthouse 30
Alan Shearer 30
Viv Woodward 29
Frank Lampard 29
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
OPINIONS ON PALESTINE & ISRAEL
Feeding the thousands for iftar
Six industrial scale vats of 500litres each are used to cook the kanji or broth
Each vat contains kanji or porridge to feed 1,000 people
The rice porridge is poured into a 500ml plastic box
350 plastic tubs are placed in one container trolley
Each aluminium container trolley weighing 300kg is unloaded by a small crane fitted on a truck
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
The years Ramadan fell in May
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Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
