Heavy rain in southern California on Monday caused a spike of traffic accidents and raised concerns of flash flooding, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.
The powerful pre-winter rainstorm starting on Sunday night triggered about six times the number of traffic accidents on Los Angeles highways compared with Monday a week ago, when there was no rain, police said.
In a suburb area where wildfires destroyed about 100 houses last month, authorities issued a mandatory evacuation on Monday morning to urge hundreds of residents to leave their homes in fears of flooding.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning effective until mid-morning in several areas of the region, where recent wildfires had stripped much of vegetation. Even in downtown Los Angeles, a flash flood watch, which is less serious than a flash flood warning, was in effect.
Meanwhile, snow falling in mountain areas near Los Angeles prompted the weather agency to warn of perilous driving conditions.
The NWS also issued a winter storm warning for the mountains of Los Angeles and neighboring Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, advising motorists not to drive through water covering a roadway.
An NWS advisory warned that heavy rain and snow across the region could turn to showers from west to east during the late morning and afternoon hours.
"In addition to the rainfall, strong winds will create significant blowing snow with near zero visibility at times, creating dangerous whiteout conditions," said the advisory.
Weather forecasters said another storm is possible in coming days and temperatures across the region would remain about 15 degrees below normal levels through the rainy period.
Source:Xinhua
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