California faces more blizzards and floods

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful winter storm that hit California on Saturday threatened to bring flooding, blizzards and avalanches, all accompanied by freezing temperatures.

Overnight, temperatures could drop below freezing in some areas, and downtown San Francisco could experience record cold in the morning, according to the National Weather Service. Forecast temperatures of 3 degrees Celsius (38 Fahrenheit) could be the coldest on record in the city since 2009, he added.

Flash flood warnings were issued Friday for Saturday around 1 or 2 a.m. in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, an area of ​​about 6 million people. The Weather Service said flooding was occurring Friday evening in Ventura County, where up to 7 inches of rain fell, and another 10 inches was possible before the storm becomes rainy Saturday afternoon.

In Los Angeles County, forecasters said dangerous flooding was possible near streams, urban areas, highways and areas scorched by wildfires. It could happen even in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and many suburbs.

“Shallow landslides and mudslides are expected to occur,” the weather service said.

Despite heavy showers, no serious problems were reported.

Rain falling at a rate of up to 1 inch (2.5 cm) per hour raised fears of flooding or landslides. Evacuation warnings have been issued for some fire-ravaged areas and for a 1.6 kilometer (one mile) strip of the central coastal town of Oceano near a levee that burst its banks last month in due to storms. Residents were asked to be ready to evacuate quickly if requested.

Meanwhile, people further east were struggling to cope with the aftermath of the storms that hit this week.

More than half a million people in Michigan were still without power Friday night, days after one of the worst ice storms in decades caused widespread outages by downing some 3,000 icy power lines.

Promises to resume service by Sunday, when temperatures are expected to rise above minus 18 degrees Celsius (0 Fahrenheit), were hardly comforting.

“It’s been four days without power in weather like this,” said Apurva Gokhale, of Walled Lake, Michigan. “It’s inconceivable.”

The National Weather Service Weather Forecast Center predicted heavy snowfall over the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains over the weekend.

In Arizona, the heaviest snowfall is expected Saturday night through noon Sunday, and the city of Flagstaff could see up to 30 centimeters (one foot) of snow, forecasters said.

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Taxine reported from Orange County, California, and White from Detroit. Associated Press writers Haven Daley in California and Corey Williams in Michigan contributed to this report.