California, soaked from days of relentless rain and still recovering from mudslides in mountain towns, faced another powerful storm on Christmas Day, prompting evacuation warnings and high-surf advisories across parts of Southern California, according to officials and the National Weather Service. In Wrightwood, a mountain community about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, authorities warned residents after the county sheriff’s department rescued people trapped in cars during an earlier mudslide.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department issued the evacuation warning for Wrightwood, a day after rescue crews dealt with what the storm conditions had already done in the area. Residents also reported dangerous road conditions during the storm’s lead-up, with Wrightwood roads described as covered in rocks, debris and thick mud, and with power disruptions affecting businesses that relied on generators.
The National Weather Service also warned of hazardous ocean conditions. It said waves near the San Francisco Bay Area could reach up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) Friday, while flood watches and wind and flood advisories remained in place for areas including the coast, and Malibu was listed under a flood watch until Friday afternoon.
Across the state, outages compounded the danger. More than 70,000 people were without power Thursday afternoon, PowerOutage.us reported, as crews prepared for continued impacts and officials warned that saturated ground could remain vulnerable.
In Wrightwood, where about 5,000 people live, some residents and visitors treated local businesses and fuel availability as makeshift lifelines because of the outage. A gas station and a coffee shop were running on generators, and a resident described the holiday as “really a crazy Christmas,” saying the family nearly evacuated the previous day when water washed away part of their backyard but chose to stay and celebrate.
Fire officials said they were staffing the area for continued emergency response. San Bernardino County Fire spokesperson Shawn Millerick said more than 150 firefighters were stationed in the region and that the department was “ready,” with “all hands on deck at this point.”
The storm conditions had already proved deadly in the days leading up to Christmas, according to news reports cited in the coverage. The storm-related deaths included a San Diego man killed after a falling tree Wednesday, and a Sacramento sheriff’s deputy who died in what appeared to be a weather-related crash.
Officials also described the weather pattern as part of a broader atmospheric river setup that had carried large plumes of moisture from the tropics during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford said Southern California typically sees between half an inch and 1 inch of rain this time of year, but that many areas could see between 4 and 8 inches this week, with even more in the mountains.
While the Christmas Day focus was on Southern California, the storm system’s projected path carried travel concerns for other regions. The National Weather Service said a major storm system moving toward the Midwest and Northeast was expected to interfere with travel, and it warned that freezing rain and sleet could create icy conditions in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Maryland, with heavy ice raising the risk of outages.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in six counties to allow state assistance, according to the report, and the state deployed resources and first responders to several coastal and Southern California counties. The California National Guard was on standby, as additional snow was expected in the Sierra Nevada, including gusts that officials said created “near white-out conditions,” as well as a winter storm warning through Friday and a “high” avalanche risk around Lake Tahoe.