Mallika Dureja
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California: On Friday morning, the Salinas River began to overflow its banks, flooding roads that led to nearby towns where more than 24,000 people were told to leave because another storm was hitting the state.
Farmers worked quickly to build berms to protect their fields in Monterey County, which is on the central coast of California. Meanwhile, people piled sandbags or left their homes before rising water blocked their way.
2 days ago this was a dry river bed… #floods #California #Californiastorm #CaliforniaFloods pic.twitter.com/EZlSQ7fsrL
— DirectorNeilJohnson (@DirectorNeil) January 10, 2023
Since the end of December, California has been flooded by a series of storms called “atmospheric rivers.” The storms on Friday were the latest in this series. At least 19 people have died because of the storms, which have flooded areas inland and made waves along the coast that are three stories high.
AccuWeather thinks that the storms have already done up to $34 billion worth of damage.
Nick Pasculli, who is in charge of public information for Monterey County, went to the area on Friday morning and saw dirty water moving across secondary and tertiary highways and farmers rushing to save their things.
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Californians took advantage of a break in the rain on Thursday to haul away dead trees, fix downed power lines, and build new sandbag stacks. The rain has been going on for weeks.
The National Weather Service said that at least two more storm systems would hit California and the Pacific Northwest starting Friday and lasting through the weekend. This included another atmospheric river, which is a system of concentrated moisture pouring into California from the tropical Pacific.
Seven of these weather systems have hit the state in the last two weeks.The historic drought in California has been eased by the heavy rains, but the U.S. Drought Monitor said Thursday that the drought is still going on. The state is no longer in a “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, which are the two worst types. However, most of the state is still in a “moderate” or “severe” drought.
