Southern California, which has been pelted for days with heavy rain and wind from two atmospheric rivers, is now facing the threat of mudslides as the storm moves out of the area.
Hundred of landslides have already been reported in the southern part of the Golden State, according to The Associated Press. Authorities are still issuing warnings around potential collapsing hillsides, as the rain began letting up Tuesday and evacuation orders were lifted.
“While the influx of anomalously high moisture associated with this past weekend’s Atmospheric River has ended, moderate to locally heavy rainfall on top of the very wet antecedent conditions may still bring a risk for some isolated instances of flooding, particularly along coastal central and southern California Wednesday and along the Mogollon Rim of Arizona through Thursday,” the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said Wednesday.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said officials would try to assist residents by requesting federal emergency money with the aim of moving homeless people out of shelters and to help hillside homeowners whose homes were damaged but who were unable to get their losses covered by insurance companies, per the AP.
The mayor added that it would take a while to count how many homes were damaged by the recent storms, the AP reported.
“The hillsides are soaked. Some of them are still moving,” Bass said. “So hopefully no more homes will be damaged, but it’s too early to tell.”
Downtown Los Angeles had experienced about 7 inches of rain from the storm as of Monday night, the wettest two-day period in nearly half a century, according to the National Weather Service.
“Showers and thunderstorms will continue to linger for Southern California while increasing across the Desert Southwest Tuesday as Pacific moisture flows northward ahead of a slow moving deep upper-level trough/surface frontal system,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
The Associated Press contributed.