More downpours in store for soaked California with additional mudslides and debris flows possible

More severe holiday weather is forecast for an already soaked California bracing for possible additional mudslides and debris flows.

Rain from a powerful winter storm that swept across Southern California was tapering off, but another storm system was on the horizon for Christmas Day with showers and possible thunderstorms. Two deaths in the state may be related to the severe weather, authorities said.

CBS News weather producer Elis Morrison says “additional on-and-off heavy downpours moving onto the California coast through Friday” could result in an additional 2 to 5 inches of rain.

A flood watch is in effect through Friday along the California coast from the Oregon border to Los Angeles and in central California. Morrison points out.

Forecasters said Southern California could see its wettest Christmas in years and warned of flash flooding and mudslides. Areas scorched by January wildfires got evacuation warnings as heavy rains and gusty winds brought mudslides and debris flows.

Many flood areas were in burn scar zones, which were stripped of vegetation by fire and are less able to absorb water.

San Bernardino County firefighters said they rescued people trapped in cars Wednesday when mud and debris rushed down a road leading into Wrightwood, a resort town in the San Gabriel Mountains about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles. It wasn’t immediately clear how many were rescued.

Firefighters also went door to door to check homes, and the area was under a shelter-in-place order, officials said. An evacuation order was issued for Lytle Creek, also in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The shelter-in-place order was still in effect Wednesday night, San Bernardino County Fire said on social media.

Janice Quick, president of the Wrightwood Chamber of Commerce and a resident of the mountain town for 45 years, said a wildfire in 2024 left much of the terrain without tree coverage.

Residents around burn scar zones from the Airport Fire in Orange County were also ordered to evacuate.

Wind and flood advisories were issued for much of the Sacramento Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Statewide, some 158,000 homes and businesses had now power overnight, according to Find Energy.  

Several roads including a part of Interstate 5 near the Burbank Airport closed due to flooding.

The storms were the result of multiple atmospheric rivers carrying massive plumes of moisture from the tropics during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.

Southern California typically gets half an inch to 1 inch of rain this time of year, but this week many areas could see between 4 and 8 inches with even more in the mountains, National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford said.

Heavy snow and gusts created “near white-out conditions” in parts of the Sierra Nevada and made mountain pass trave treacherous. Officials said there was a “considerable” avalanche risk around Lake Tahoe, and a winter storm warning was in effect until Friday morning.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in six counties to allow state assistance in storm response.

The state deployed emergency resources and first responders to several coastal and Southern California counties, and the California National Guard was on standby.

The California Highway Patrol reported a seemingly weather-related crash south of Sacramento in which a Sacramento sheriff’s deputy died. James Caravallo, who was with the agency for 19 years, was apparently traveling at an unsafe speed, lost control on a wet road and crashed into a power pole, CHP Officer Michael Harper said via email.

In San Diego Wednesday morning, a large tree branch fell and killed a man just outside his home, reports the CBS affiliate there, KFMB-TV.