Heavy rains lashed parts of US' California, triggering car accidents, road closures, mudslides and flooded homes that has left two dead, according to Fox News.?
The intensity of the rains was such that a?portion of a highway along the iconic Big Sur Coast also collapsed and washed away.?The storm flooded?homes, triggered debris flows and mudslides, forced evacuations to higher elevations on Friday night,?shutting off power?for hundreds of thousands of residents.?
On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamation for Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties because of the storms that in addition to damaging a highway forced thousands to evacuate.??
According to reports, one person died Friday after being trapped in a flooded storm drain system in the San Ysidro area of San Diego reportedly near a?Mexican?border crossing and another died Thursday while?skiing?at Mammoth Mountain.
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Some of the counties like?San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara received between 6 and 12 inches of rainalong the coastline, leaving the homes in and around those areas flooded.?
The Los Angeles County Fire Department temporarily closed beaches from Marina del Rey to Zuma Beach on Friday afternoon because of the threat of lightning. In Orange County, Huntington Beach issued a voluntary evacuation order of all beaches in the city through the evening because of lightning.??
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The heavy rains are mostly caused by atmospheric rivers - which are long, narrow bands of water vapor that form over an ocean and flow through the sky. They occur globally, but they are especially significant on the West Coast of the United States, where they create 30% to 50% of annual precipitation and are linked to water supply and problems such as flooding and mudslides, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.??
The atmospheric river was part of a major change in weather for California, which had significant drought conditions for months.? ?
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