Relentless storms were ravaging California again Tuesday, the latest bout of extreme weather that has left 14 people dead and prompted evacuation of a star-studded town home to Britain’s Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle.
Fierce storms caused flash flooding, closed key highways, toppled trees and swept away drivers and passengers — reportedly including a five-year-old-boy who remains missing in central California — and authorities were bracing for more rain and snow to batter America’s most populous state.
More than 230,000 California homes and businesses were without power as of early Tuesday, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us.
A fresh storm is set to pound the state with as much as seven inches (18 centimeters) of new rain in northern California by Wednesday and “several more feet of snow” in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the National Weather Service said in a Tuesday forecast.
The town of Montecito, a favorite of American entertainment royalty such as Oprah Winfrey and Jennifer Aniston, was expected to get up to eight inches of rain in 24 hours — threatening dangerous mudslides on hills already sodden by weeks of downpours.
Emergency authorities in the town 90 minutes from Los Angeles said anyone in the area should get out.
“LEAVE NOW! This is a rapidly evolving situation. Please pay close attention to emergency alerts,” a fire department website said.
Hundreds of square miles (kilometers) of land were scorched in 2017 and 2018, denuding the hillsides of the vegetation that normally keeps soil in place.
“Over the last 30 days, Montecito has received 12-20+ inches of rain across the community, exceeding our yearly average of 17 inches,” Montecito Fire said on Twitter.
“This cumulative, saturating rain puts the community at greater risk of flooding and debris flow.”
It was not clear how many of the town’s residents had heeded the call to flee.
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