California, Nevada face flooding, power outages amid winter storm

Northern California and western Nevada were slammed over the weekend by a powerful winter storm that deluged towns and counties with several inches of rain and snowfall.

An atmospheric river storm pulled in moisture from the Pacific Ocean before pushing through the western states. As of Sunday afternoon, power was out in more than 170,000 California homes, with about 35,000 homes in Nevada also in the dark, according to poweroutage.us.

More than five inches of rain fell over the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday, marking the region’s second wettest day on record.

Photos shared online show a flood of murky brown rainwater streaming through San Francisco’s streets.

The California Highway Patrol shut down a major route, US-101, on New Year’s Eve before re-opening it on Sunday.

A large semi-truck drove through a road closure on Saturday night and had to be towed away before the highway was re-opened, according to the agency.

Across the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, about 4.75 inches of rain fell on Saturday night. The rainfall set a new record in the city, breaking a previous one set in 1982.

Oakland crews are working to clear streets of flooding and debris, including downed trees, while also providing sandbags to residents to divert water from their homes.

The city is asking residents to stay off the roads while the work continues.

A flash flood warning is still in effect north of Oakland in Sacramento, where the National Weather Service reported several roads were underwater in the central and southern parts of the state capital.

Officials are discouraging travel around the areas of Wilton, Herald and Galt in Sacramento County and also shut down a major interstate, state route 99, after flooding was unleashed in the region from the Cosumnes River on Saturday night.

Heavy snowfall also pounded the Sierra Nevada mountains, bringing up to three feet of snow in some areas.

More snow is expected in the region this week from another, smaller storm developing along the West Coast.

Several inches of snow also hit areas across western Nevada, where some regions were expecting up to 18 inches of snowfall.