JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
California’s governor has now declared a state of emergency in six counties as powerful storms continue to pound the state. Gavin Newsom has prepositioned hundreds of emergency responders, rescue teams and equipment in San Diego, the LA Basin and Shasta County in northern California. Kavish Harjai, a reporter with LAist, which is our member station in Los Angeles, is on the line now. Hi there.
KAVISH HARJAI, BYLINE: Hello.
SUMMERS: Hi. So tell us, what has been happening with the storm?
KAVISH HARJAI: Yeah. So the rain has started to fall. It began overnight on Tuesday. As of midmorning, the National Weather Service has more than an inch of rain having fallen in downtown LA, but the LA area is geographically really diverse and very large, so rainfall accumulates differently in different places, so it looks different elsewhere. But, you know, overnight, forecasters said that the peak rainfall was going to be later, so it’s sometime today into tomorrow into Christmas Day. But just because the storm is moving slower, they emphasize that doesn’t mean the storm is less powerful.
SUMMERS: It sounds like the primary concern with this storm is rain, but there’s also potential for high winds, right?
KAVISH HARJAI: Yeah. That’s right. Lots of rain will be accumulating but, also there are forecasts for some hefty wind gusts, which, you know, when combined with wet ground, that could bring trees and power lines down. And even this morning, there was a brief tornado warning. But the broader concern here, I think, is that the storm is happening on a holiday week. It’s – lots of people are going to be on the road. Lots of people are trying to stick to plans that they’ve probably had for a really long time, and officials are concerned they might be ignoring some of the warnings from officials or ignoring forecasts. Ariel Cohen is a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, and this is what he told LAist Tuesday evening.
ARIEL COHEN: We are going to be having widespread areas of significant flooding in urban areas, along freeways and rockslides and mudslides as well that will make dangerous – not just dangerous, but life-threatening conditions in many areas if you’re traveling out and about.
KAVISH HARJAI: And of course, with any storm in this area, burn scar areas are of concern. So these are portions of land where, because of wildfires, vegetation has been removed and the nature of the soil has changed, and as a result, water isn’t absorbed by that burned land as it usually might be. And so that creates dangerous runoff conditions for the land below and makes those burn scar areas susceptible to debris flows.
SUMMERS: What’s the latest you can tell us about the evacuations?
KAVISH HARJAI: Sure. So nearly 400 properties in LA County were given evacuation orders yesterday morning. Those are in effect for now until tomorrow night, but things could obviously change. Several other parts of the county near burn scar areas were given evacuation warnings, so they’re just on alert. And then there are a few areas in neighboring counties, in Orange and San Bernardino counties, that were given evacuation orders this morning.
SUMMERS: Looking ahead, Kavish, what does the forecast say for the rest of the week?
KAVISH HARJAI: Sure. So wind and flood watches are active through the end of the week. And as I said earlier, the storm is going to look different depending where you are in LA. So in the coastal and valley areas, the forecast is for 4 to 6 inches by Saturday, whereas the rain could be as much as a foot in the mountains and foothills. And, you know, even if there is a lull in rain or if rain becomes lighter later this week, officials say that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear because rain can accumulate, the ground can get wetter and wetter over time. So they’re just hoping folks stay vigilant through the rest of the week.
SUMMERS: Reporter Kavish Harjai with LAist, thank you so much for your reporting.
KAVISH HARJAI: Thanks, Juana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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