Huge Storm Slams Southern California

This could be region's biggest in 22 years
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 18, 2017 5:57 AM CST
Huge Storm Slams Southern California
This Friday, Feb. 17, 2017 satellite image released by the NOAA shows a powerful storm beginning to move into California.   (Uncredited)

A huge Pacific storm parked itself over southern California and unloaded Friday, ravaging roads, opening sinkholes, and leading to the deaths of at least two people. The storm feeding on an atmospheric river of moisture stretching far out into the ocean was at its most fierce late Friday afternoon, dropping over 8 inches of rain in one area, and was expected to last until Saturday afternoon, the AP reports. The region appeared to dodge any major disasters, but in the desert town of Victorville, several cars were washed down a flooded street, and one man was found dead in a submerged vehicle after others were rescued.

In the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, a man was electrocuted when a tree falling in heavy rain downed power lines that hit his car. Later in the same neighborhood, a sinkhole swallowed two cars, the second on live TV as viewers watched it teeter on the edge before plunging in. Firefighters rescued one person from the first car, and the driver got out of the second before it fell. No one was injured. The National Weather Service says it could end up being the strongest storm to hit southern California since January 1995. Hundreds of trees and dozens of power lines were toppled in the LA area and about 150,000 customers were without electricity across the region. (More California stories.)

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