Death toll and destruction mount as storm pounds Southern California
LOS ANGELES — Rainfall from a deadly atmospheric river storm has already smashed records in Southern California, but the severe weather did not let up Tuesday, as more mud and debris flows inundated roads and forced evacuations.
The death toll from the storm climbed and included the first storm-related death in Southern California. Officials are concerned the number could grow once the water recedes.
That could take days, though, officials said, as rain was expected to persist across the Southland through at least Wednesday, with some heavy precipitation still possible.
“Do not let your guard down,” Ariel Cohen, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, said Tuesday during a briefing in Los Angeles. “There could still be some very significant impacts.”
It will take “very little additional rain” to cause increased flooding or mudslides and debris flows, he said, as played out Tuesday in Hacienda Heights and La Habra Heights in east Los Angeles County. to see devastating damage from the historic rainfall.
