Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify the number of people under an emergency warning
(NewsNation) — Southern California is facing landslides, flash flooding and torrential rains as the state was hit by another day of storms stemming from an atmospheric river.
About 1.4 million people in the Los Angeles area were under flash-flood warnings and around 500,000 were without electricity in California as of Monday morning, according to Poweroutage.us. More than 14 million residents, meanwhile, are under a high risk of excessive rainfall.
A state of emergency has been declared for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
Evacuation orders and warnings were in effect for mountain and canyon areas of Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Crews were working to rescue people from swift-moving water in various parts of Southern California.
Many parts of Los Angeles County have seen more than nine inches of rain, and the National Weather Service says as many as 14 could fall in mountain and foothill communities.
“The ongoing atmospheric river will bring another day of heavy precipitation to California,” the National Weather Service said. “Heavy snow in the mountains will create dangerous to near-impossible travel at times, while heavy rain will produce significant flash flooding.”
The storm sent trees crashing onto powerlines and cars in the San Francisco Bay area, with winds over 60 mph recorded in some areas. In the mountains, there were gusts exceeding 80 mph.
A rare “hurricane force wind warning” was put in place by the National Weather Service for the Central Coast. NWS is predicting potential wind gusts of up to 92 mph from the Monterey Peninsula to the northern section of San Luis Obispo County.
Several vehicles were trapped after mud, rocks and tree branches flowed onto a drive in one Los Angeles neighborhood, NewsNation local affiliate KTLA reports. In the Hollywood Hills, several homes were damaged by mudslides.
Multiple major airports in the greater Los Angeles area had to delay or cancel flights.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, that all Malibu schools will be closed Monday because of the weather. In addition, classes were canceled for schools across Santa Barbara County as well. Los Angeles Unified School District said its schools would stay open except for Topanga Elementary Charter School and Vinedale College Preparatory Academy.
Pepperdine University announced it canceled in-person classes at its Southern California campuses.
This comes as much of California had already been trying to dry out from another atmospheric river that blew in last week, which also caused flooding. It arrived offshore in Northern California on Saturday, when most of the state was under some sort of wind, surf or flood watch.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.
