On Sunday, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, made the announcement that he will be requesting the Biden administration to declare a federal emergency in order to support California’s ongoing storm response efforts. The request for a federal emergency comes in the wake of an unrelenting wave of severe storms that has left hundreds of thousands of people in the state without power.
The most severe of the storms is expected to arrive on Monday, bringing with it strong winds and abundant precipitation. During an update on the winter storm that took place on Sunday, Newsom warned that the following 48 hours will see “very intense weather”.
“Don’t test fate,” Newsom said. “Just a foot of water and your car’s floating, you know, half a foot of water and you’re off your feet.”
At the peak of the storm on Sunday, more than half of the city’s 530,000 people were left without power as a result of wind gusts that reached up to 60 miles per hour and brought down trees and twisted power lines.
According to the National Weather Service, “atmospheric river events” will continue to bring severe weather to California through the early part of this week, with the expected arrival of the most powerful storm on Monday. According to the meteorological service, more precipitation falling on already saturated soils may result in significant floods, mudslides, and debris flows.
The statement issued a warning, saying that widespread mountain snow and severe winds will contribute to weather problems across the state.
“This could be a deadly situation and the storm will likely be a billion-dollar disaster,” tweeted Ariella Scalese, AccuWeather meteorologist. “Several more inches of rain, mudslides/landslides. In addition, feet of snow above 6,500 feet and wind gusts exceeding 100 mph.”
