SCIENTISTS SAID CALIFORNIA MIGHT HAVE TSUNAMI ONE DAY IN THE FUTURE. AND PLEASE DON'T ACCUSE ME OF GETTING ATTENTION, JUST WANT TO JOIN IN DISCUSSION.
Updated: 12:43 PM EST
California Endures Another Day of Storms
At Least Nine Deaths Blamed on Weather
By MICHALE R. BLOOD, AP
***Emergency workers pulled this man from rushing floodwaters in Cerritos, California. As you'll see here, it wasn't easy.***
LOS ANGELES (Jan. 10) - More drenching rain fell Monday on Southern California, where a toddler drowned after being wrenched from her mother's grasp by a raging flood, a homeless man was killed by a landslide and a man was carried two miles down a swollen river before being rescued.
The wet, windy weather isn't expected to let up until Wednesday, with as much as 6 inches of rain forecast in the region through Tuesday and an additional 2 feet of snow at elevations above 7,500 feet.
"We're going to be getting more of the same, harsh weather," said Curt Kaplan, a National Weather Service forecaster.
The storm system was blamed for at least nine deaths during the weekend in Southern California, including a man killed when his vehicle plunged into the surf off Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, and a homeless man killed when the hillside where his tent was pitched gave way.
A 2-year-old girl died after slipping from her mother's grasp as rescuers were lifting them from the family's vehicle, which got stuck in a flooded wash Sunday night, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Don Ford. The woman had driven around barricades, Ford said. The child's body was found Monday.
Hundreds of accidents were reported Sunday on roads clogged by water, mud flows and fallen trees, and rockslides on Monday closed the Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur, the California Highway Patrol said. And some Metrolink and Amtrak train service was canceled because of storm-related damage and mudslides.
In the Cerritos area, a man whose car skidded off Interstate 5 into a storm drain Sunday was swept two miles downstream, authorities said. Firefighters threw him a rope from a bridge and started pulling him up but he lost his grip and plunged back into the swift current. He was later pulled to safety on a bank. Two children in the car also were rescued.
"The last I heard he is unhurt and in good spirits," fire Capt. Mike Yule told CNN.
The National Weather Service said downtown Los Angeles had received 5.16 inches of rain since Friday, including a record 2.58 inches on Sunday.
About 60 homes were evacuated in a remote community in San Bernardino County because of flooding, and rising water chased about 150 residents out of a neighborhood in Santa Clarita on Sunday. Thousands also temporarily lost power during the weekend, and several Los Angeles-area radio stations were knocked off the air for hours Sunday by transmitter problems.
The same storm has been dumping heavy snow across the Sierra Nevada that stalled an Amtrak train during the weekend, shut down the Reno, Nev., airport for the second time in a week and halted motorists trying to cross the mountains. Winter storm warnings were in effect with as much as 5 feet of new snow possible by Tuesday morning.
Since Dec. 28, up to 19 feet of snow has fallen at elevations above 7,000 feet in the Sierra, with 6 1/2 feet at lower elevations in the Reno area. Meteorologists said it was the most snow the Reno-Lake Tahoe area has seen since 1916.
Eastward along the weather systems' track, weekend storms dumped up to 4 feet of snow in the Colorado Rockies, setting off avalanches that closed highways through two mountain passes. Avalanches killed two men in Utah, where flooding Monday in the state's southwest corner chased some residents from their homes in St. George.
In the East, the Ohio River has been flooding parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana since heavy rain last fell on ground already saturated by melted snow from a storm before Christmas.
That storm also produced snow and ice that knocked out power and authorities believe carbon monoxide poisoning killed five people using generators for electricity in Ohio and two in Pennsylvania.
The Ohio River was 5.8 feet above flood stage Monday at Portsmouth, Ohio, and was expected to begin receding Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. It was 4.3 feet above flood stage Monday at Cincinnati, with a crest of 57.1 feet expected Tuesday, well below the 1997 peak of 64.7 feet. Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., had closed some of the gates in their flood walls.
"It's not that bad. It's just an inconvenience right now," said Joe Middeler, 54, who had water in his back yard Monday in Point Pleasant, Ohio, about 20 miles upriver from Cincinnati.
01/09/05 17:12 EST
