‘Catastrophic floods’ expected | New storm hits California with heavy rainfall

(Salinas) A new storm with driving rains fell on California on Saturday, causing major flooding, after already three weeks of unprecedented precipitation which caused at least 19 deaths.

A major wave of rain – and snow in the mountains – swept through many areas of the most populous state in the United States on Saturday, whose soils are already saturated with water.

Yet another low-pressure system was to arrive from the Pacific during the day on Saturday, showering the coast, the valleys and then the mountains of California, warned the American weather service (NWS)

Power lines were hit, while fields and roads were flooded.

“It’s not over,” California Governor Gavin Newsom warned at a press conference, arguing that although the rain was decreasing in intensity, the ground was waterlogged and the risk of flooding remained. therefore important.

Aware of the weariness of Californians after already several weeks of downpours, he said: “I urge all of us to maintain our vigilance and our common sense for the next 24 to 48 hours. »

Gavin Newsom said he was convinced that Joe Biden would soon sign a declaration of major disaster: “It is the intention of the American president”, he said.

In the region of Salinas, a city of 160,000 inhabitants south of San Francisco where the eponymous river overflowed its bed, the flood affected the agricultural corners of the valley, but spared the urban areas, noted Saturday morning a journalist from the AFP.

“Avoid the worst”

In Spreckles, a housing estate a few hundred meters from the river, most residents had not evacuated despite warnings from authorities this week.

“It seems that we have avoided the worst,” breathes Robert Zagajeski, out walking his dog in a light rain. According to forecasters, the river should begin to recede from Saturday.

Like the rest of California, Salinas, homeland of John Steinbeck, whose Nobel Literature winner was largely inspired to write his Grapes of Wrathconnects the deluges.

“We need as much rain as possible, but farmers can’t do anything with such wet fields,” sighs Zagajeski.

A few kilometers further, Erick Diaz watches the flooded fields from his modest wooden house not far from the river. Despite an evacuation order targeting 17,000 people in the area, he too remains at home.

“I have nowhere to go and so far everything is fine,” said the 30-year-old farm worker.

“The region has been hit hard by drought in recent years,” Manuel Paris, a 58-year-old farm worker, told AFP, impressed by the river flowing at full speed below. “It’s been so long, we’re not used to having so much rain anymore. »

A new “atmospheric river”, meaning a narrow band in the atmosphere carrying huge amounts of moisture from the tropics, is expected on Monday, a public holiday in the United States. It will bring “new waves of extreme precipitation”, warns the NWS.

One meter of snow

In the mountains, this precipitation translates into heavy snowfall, with more than a meter expected over the weekend in the Sierra Nevada, the authorities warning of the risk of avalanche and advising against any movement.

At least 19 people have died since the start of this series of bad weather. In particular, drivers were found in their cars trapped by the waves, people hit by falling trees, a couple was killed by a landslide and bodies were washed away by the floods.

California is used to extreme weather conditions, and winter storms are common. Such a sequence, on the other hand, is unusual.

While it is difficult to establish a direct link between these series of storms and climate change, scientists regularly explain that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

However, the torrential rains of the past few weeks will not be enough to end the drought that has hit this western American state hard for two decades, according to specialists.