Heavy Rain, Strong Winds, Power Outages Plague West Coast States
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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — In what has been called the worst storm in five years along the West Coast, torrential rain and strong winds continued to pound several states Thursday, knocking down power lines and leaving tens of thousands of utility customers in the dark.
At last count, 117,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers in the Bay Area were without power.
Some areas of Northern California have received more than nine inches of rain. The heavy rain has swollen creeks and rivers and caused numerous traffic accidents.
Many schools in the region were closed Thursday.
In the Northern California town of Healdsburg, a man was seen kayaking through the parking lot of a Safeway grocery store.
Waves reached seven feet in height on Lake Tahoe and the surfers took advantage. It’s not often folks get a chance to surf on a lake!
In Washington state, the pounding rain has left streets flooded and eroded the land underneath several homes along the coast. Two have already been lost to the storm. More than 100,000 customers were without power in Washington state.
Two people were killed in Oregon Thursday when trees fell on them, ABC television affiliate KATU in Portland reported. A teenager was killed in Southwest Portland when the car he riding in was hit by a tree, police said. The other death was reported in southern Oregon. A man died when high winds felled a tree that crashed through a tent where he was sleeping, the Jackson County Sheriff Office said.
Forecasters expected the nasty weather to continue throughout the night as it heads down into Southern California, where there is a real fear of mudslides in areas that have been laid bare by wildfires.
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