California 'bombogenesis', biggest storm in years, kills two
One of California's strongest storms in years - dubbed a "bombogenesis" or "weather bomb" - has hit the state, killing two, and bringing torrential rain and flash floods.
More than 100 homes have been evacuated amid fears of mud slides near Los Angeles.
Hundreds of flights have been delayed or cancelled at Los Angeles International Airport.
The weather has also brought car-swallowing sinkholes and power cuts.
One man was killed after a tree fell and pulled a power lines on to his car in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles.
A second person died in a vehicle when it was submerged by a flash flood in the town of Victorville.
Another motorist at the same junction was saved after climbing on to the roof of his car.
Ryan Maue, a meteorologist for WeatherBell Analytics, told the Los Angeles Times that 10 trillion gallons of rain would fall on California in the next week, enough to power Niagara Falls for 154 days.
Two cars fell down a sinkhole in LA neighbourhood Studio City, with the drama of the second one, teetering on the edge and then tumbling down, shown on live television.
Firefighters saved one person from the first car, and the driver got out of the second before it fell. No-one was injured.
Meteorologists describe the "bombogenesis" as an intense extra-tropical cyclonic low-pressure area, or "a weather bomb".
"The storm looks to be the strongest storm to hit southwest California this season," the National Weather Service said.
"It is likely the strongest within the last six years and possibly even as far back as December 2004 or January 1995."
After five years of drought, a series of storms have filled state reservoirs.
California's Sierra Nevada mountain range is also loaded with snow. Runoff from its snowpack normally supplies about a third of the state's water.
Gusts of 87mph (140km/h) have been reported on the Big Sur scenic coastal highway.
Evacuations have been recommended at hundreds of homes in the city of Duarte, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles, and in parts of Camarillo Springs in Ventura County.
Earlier in the week, heavy rain and melting snow caused fears of flooding at the tallest dam in the country , Oroville Dam, in northern California. More than 180,000 residents were evacuated.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39010887
After 7 years of drought we're now going to get (and it's been a wet winter so far) "10 trillion gallons of rain would fall on California in the next week, enough to power Niagara Falls for 154 days". We needed some good rain, but we didn't killer floods. The death toll is up to 3 now and there is no doubt that it will climb higher then that when then mudslides start from all of the hillsides that were burnt bare near small towns. Fortunately for me where I live the San Jacinto Mountains keep the bulk of the worst of it West in the Los Angeles area and not as much comes over the top into the Coachlla Valley, but I think our flood channels will be close to full this week.