A powerful Pacific storm blew into Southern and Central California on Friday with wind-driven heavy rains, triggering rescues, calls for evacuations, toppling trees and power lines and disrupting travel and outdoor events.

With the storm feeding on an atmospheric river of moisture stretching far out into the Pacific, precautionary evacuations of homes in some neighborhoods were requested due to the potential for mudslides and debris flows.

Numerous arriving and departing flights were delayed or canceled at the state's airports, including more than 300 alone at Los Angeles International Airport.

"It's crazy," said Robin Johnson, an academic adviser at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "It's just pouring down rain. The wind is just going nuts."

"At one point the wind was so strong I'm surprised it didn't blow my windows out," retiree Phoenix Hocking said in a Facebook message from Carpinteria. "I now have a pond in my patio. And my dog is starting to grow flippers so he can go out and do his business."

Using ropes and inflatable boats, firefighters rescued seven people and two dogs from the Sepulveda basin, a recreation and flood-control area along the Los Angeles River. One person was taken to a hospital with a non-life- threatening injury.

Mudslides and flooding partially closed a section of freeway and the Pacific Coast Highway in beach areas.

The storm took aim at Southern California but also spread precipitation north into the San Joaquin Valley and up to San Francisco. It was not expected to bring significant rain in the far north where damage to spillways of the Lake Oroville dam forced evacuation of 188,000 people last weekend.

The National Weather Service said it could end up being the strongest storm to hit Southern California since January 1995.

Rain and wind wiped out play in golf's Genesis Open at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, where a eucalyptus tree cracked. Elsewhere in the city a tree brought down power lines as it fell on a car, and a person was hospitalized for possible electric shock, the Fire Department said.

By mid-afternoon, hundreds of trees and dozens of power lines had toppled in the Los Angeles area.

A 75-foot tree fell onto an apartment building near the University of California, Los Angeles, narrowly missing someone who was in bed, fire officials said. Four of the six apartments have been declared unsafe to enter, leaving 16 college students evacuated or unable to return home.

Another tree smashed a carport and vehicles in the Santa Barbara suburb of Goleta.

Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County closed because the weather. High surf pounded beaches.

Rain fell in some areas at rates up to three quarters of an inch per hour and wind gusts hit 55 mph in the Malibu hills, the weather service said.

Total rainfall predictions ranged from 2 inches to 6 inches on the coast and from 5 inches to 10 inches in foothills and coastal mountain.

In downtown Los Angeles, Uber driver John Kim anticipated extra business from people not wanting to walk even short distances in the rain.

"It's good for me," he said. "So much rain, I get busy."

With soil already saturated from significant rains this winter, forecasters warned of the potential for flash floods and debris flows, especially near areas left barren by wildfires.

The city of Duarte, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles, ordered evacuation of 180 homes below a burn scar. Up the coast, evacuations were urged for parts of Camarillo Springs in Ventura County and around an 11½-square-mile burn scar west of Santa Barbara.

"This is, by far, the biggest storm we've had in a long time," said Johnson, the UCSB adviser. "Might not be the best weekend to be a tourist in Santa Barbara."

Cal Poly, the state university in San Luis Obispo, was keeping an eye on an unstable hillside near a dormitory housing 275 students. A protective barrier was set up and some trees were removed, but students were told to be ready to evacuate.

Santa Anita Park near Pasadena canceled all its horse races Friday.

Pasadena canceled Saturday's annual Black History Month parade, citing public safety concerns, including possible lightning strikes.

In Northern California, officials monitoring the stricken Oroville Dam on the Feather River said they were confident the reservoir would handle any runoff from expected storms because ongoing releases have been lowering the lake's level since its spillways were damaged last week.

"There is more than enough room in the lake to continue accommodating incoming water and the lake level will continue to be lowered," the state Department of Water Resources said Friday.

Up the West Coast, after a week of snow and heavy rains, landslides were covering roads in Washington state. Commuter trains into Seattle were canceled Thursday due to slides, and Spokane County declared a state of emergency due to flooding and washed out roadways.

After five years of drought, California has seen a long series of storms that have filled reservoirs and loaded the Sierra Nevada with snow. Runoff from the snowpack normally supplies about a third of the state's water.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, only about 24 percent of the state remained in moderate, severe or extreme drought as of Thursday. The latter category was confined to a sliver of territory northwest of Los Angeles.

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AP writers Mike Balsamo, Robert Jablon and Doug Ferguson contributed to this report.</s>Southern California will be soaked by the biggest storm it has seen in six years this weekend sparking flash flood warnings across the region.

Six inches of rain will fall between by Saturday night, piling on to what has already been the wettest winters on record for the state.

Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura are all at risk of flash floods when the downpours begin to move across the area late on Thursday night.

The rain will begin softly, with less than an inch forecast before Friday when it will then grow stronger.

It will peak on Saturday night, with 2 inches set to fall on Los Angeles alone from 10pm.

'This will likely go down in the record books as one of the wettest February days ever,' Crystal Egger, NBC's weather forecaster, said.

The storm will move east then down into Mexico by Sunday morning.

It will boost the Los Angeles's rain total since October from 16.25 inches to more than 20 and brings the risk of mudslides to two parts of the city - Glendora and Azusa.

Snow will flurry in the mountains where winds will reach 70mph. At the storm's peak, the snow level will drop to rise to 8,000ft which adds to the risk of flooding in the towns below.

This year has been one of the wettest winters on record for California after five years of crippling drought, The Weather Channel reports.

The sudden downpours have filled reservoirs across the state to capacity, sparking catastrophe at one, The Oroville Dam in Northern California, which threatened to give way to erosion last week.

Engineers are now draining it before storms hit again next week.

The Anderson Dam at Morgan Hill, around 27 miles south of San Jose, is also threatening to overflow.

The dam, which is the largest in Santa Clara County, was 99 percent full on Wednesday but water agencies say its spillways are equipped if it reaches its capacity.

Northern California is on track to record its wettest winter ever. The central part of the state has had its second wettest and Southern California is on a par with 1968-1969, its wettest ever.</s>LOS ANGELES: One of the strongest storms in years pounded California, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes, causing power outages and prompting flight delays and cancellations.

Los Angeles fire officials said one person was electrocuted after a tree downed a power line and several people stranded near the Los Angeles River had to be rescued with inflatable boats.

There were reports of some 150 downed electrical lines that left many people in the city without power.

An official at Los Angeles International Airport said 64 flights were cancelled and 269 delayed because of the storm.

Flash flood warnings were meanwhile issued in many areas of the state, which has been hit this winter by a series of storms that have filled reservoirs, bringing respite following a severe five-year drought.

The latest storm, which packed heavy wind-driven rain, was mainly affecting southern California but rain was also forecast in the central part of the state up to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Residents of the city of Duarte, located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles were ordered to evacuate on Friday for fear of mudslides and voluntary evacuation orders were issued for some residents of Camarillo Springs, north of LA.

"The storm looks to be the strongest to hit southwest California this season," the National Weather Service in Los Angeles said.

It warned that the storm -- which could bring up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain an hour -- will likely cause mudslides and flooding. The agency urged people in affected areas to remain on the lookout for downed trees and power lines.

"Possible impacts due to potentially widespread heavy rain include flooding for urban areas and small streams, flash flooding with mud and debris flows, especially near and below recent burn areas, and mud/rockslides near canyon walls," the National Weather Service said.

It said the northern part of the state -- where flooding last week damaged the Lake Oroville dam and forced the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people -- was not expected to have heavy rainfall.

The inclement weather was expected to last through Saturday.</s>Two people are dead after the strongest storm to hit southern California in years moved into the Los Angeles area on Friday, bringing torrential rain, flash floods and powerful winds.

As much as 250 millimetres of rain (10 inches) was expected to fall in parts of the region, said the U.S. National Weather Service, raising the risk of mudslides — along with winds gusting to 112 km/h.

More than 300 flights were delayed or cancelled at Los Angeles International Airport.

A man was found dead inside a vehicle that was submerged in floodwaters in Victorville, San Bernardino County fire officials said.

Another man was electrocuted in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles when power lines, taken out by a falling tree, hit his car.

Later in the same neighbourhood, a sinkhole swallowed two cars, the second on live TV as viewers watched it teeter on the edge before plunging in.

Firefighters rescued one person from the first car, and the driver got out of the second before it fell. No one was injured.

At the Cajon Pass, the shoulder of Interstate 15 crumbled and sent a parked firetruck spilling over the side, but no one was hurt.

Hundreds of trees and dozens of power lines had toppled in the Los Angeles area and about 150,000 customers were without electricity across the region.

The storm, with what may be California's heaviest rainfall in six years, comes as months of wet weather have dramatically eased the state's years-long drought.
• What to know about California's failing Oroville Dam

However, the heavy rain and melting snowpack threatened to undermine a spillway at one of the largest dams in the country, which prompted the evacuation of 188,000 residents earlier this week.</s>LOS ANGELES -- A powerful Pacific storm blew into Southern and Central California on Friday with wind-driven heavy rains that downed power lines and electrocuted a man, killed a motorist in a submerged car and disrupted hundreds of flights at airports.

With the storm feeding on an atmospheric river of moisture stretching far out into the Pacific, precautionary evacuations of homes in some neighbourhoods were requested due to the potential for mudslides and debris flows.

More than 300 arriving and departing flights were delayed or cancelled at Los Angeles International Airport.

In the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, a falling tree downed power lines and hit a car. A 55-year-old man was electrocuted and pronounced dead at a hospital, police and fire officials said.

Later in the same neighbourhood, a sinkhole swallowed two cars, the second on live TV as viewers watched it teeter on the edge before plunging in. Firefighters rescued one person from the first car, and the driver got out of the second before it fell. No one was injured.

Winds gusting to 110km/h or more lashed parts of the region. Heavy rains turned creeks and rivers into brown torrents and released slews of mud from hillsides burned barren by wildfires. Several stretches of freeways and highways were closed by flooding.

"It's crazy," said Robin Johnson, an academic adviser at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "It's just pouring down rain. The wind is just going nuts."

"At one point the wind was so strong I'm surprised it didn't blow my windows out," retiree Phoenix Hocking said in a Facebook message from Carpinteria. "I now have a pond in my patio. And my dog is starting to grow flippers so he can go out and do his business."

In the desert town of Victorville, several cars were washed down a flooded street. A helicopter rescued one person from the roof of a car but another motorist was found dead in a submerged vehicle, San Bernardino County fire spokesman Eric Sherwin said.

Elsewhere in the county, a 32-kilometre stretch of State Route 138 in the West Cajon Valley was closed at the scene of a summer wildfire.

Mud sloshed over concrete rail barriers and about two dozen vehicles, including big-rigs and a school bus, were either mired in mud or became unable to turn around on the closed road and some were abandoned, Sherwin said.

Two people in a car were rescued and four students on the bus were removed and taken to a school office, he said.

Another road in the area was covered with 61 centimeters of mud.

In LA's Sun Valley, 10 cars were trapped in swift-moving water on a roadway and 15 people had to be rescued, the Fire Department reported.

Using ropes and inflatable boats, firefighters rescued seven people and two dogs from the Sepulveda basin, a recreation and flood-control area along the Los Angeles River. One person was taken to a hospital with a non-life threatening injury.

The storm took aim at Southern California but also spread precipitation north into the San Joaquin Valley and up to San Francisco. It was not expected to bring significant rain in the far north where damage to spillways of the Lake Oroville dam forced evacuation of 188,000 people last weekend.

The National Weather Service said it could end up being the strongest storm to hit Southern California since January 1995.

Rain and wind wiped out play in golf's Genesis Open at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, where a eucalyptus tree cracked.

Hundreds of trees and dozens of power lines had toppled in the Los Angeles area and at one point more than 60,000 city power customers were without electricity.

A 23-metre tree fell onto an apartment building near the University of California, Los Angeles, narrowly missing someone who was in bed, fire officials said. Four of the six apartments have been declared unsafe to enter, prompting the evacuation of 16 college students.

"I was just sitting in bed trying to enjoy a Friday morning of no class," one resident told KCAL-TV. "I had a giant, like, thunder popping sound and then next thing I knew a branch was coming through the ceiling."

Her leg was scratched by debris and "I was covered in sawdust," she said.

Her thought now was, "Where am I going to live?"

Another tree smashed a carport and vehicles in the Santa Barbara suburb of Goleta.

By evening, Ventura County and northern Los Angeles County had seen 24-hour rain totals of up to 19 centimetres, with the San Marcos mountain pass in Santa Barbara County receiving nearly 21 centimetres.

Farther south, downtown Los Angeles had received about 3.8 centimetres of rain while some areas saw up to 10 centimetres.

The storm system was moving "very slowly" eastward and Los Angeles County was expected to see more rain through Saturday, said Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The city of Duarte, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles, ordered evacuation of 180 homes below a burn scar. Up the coast, evacuations were urged for parts of Camarillo Springs in Ventura County and around an 30 square-kilometre burn scar west of Santa Barbara.

In Northern California, officials monitoring the stricken Oroville Dam on the Feather River said they were confident the reservoir would handle any runoff from expected storms because ongoing releases have been lowering the lake's level since its spillways were damaged last week.

AP writers Mike Balsamo, Robert Jablon and Doug Ferguson contributed to this report.</s>LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful Pacific storm blew into Southern and Central California on Friday with wind-driven heavy rains that downed power lines and electrocuted a man, killed a motorist in a submerged car and disrupted hundreds of flights at airports.

With the storm feeding on an atmospheric river of moisture stretching far out into the Pacific, precautionary evacuations of homes in some neighborhoods were requested due to the potential for mudslides and debris flows.

More than 300 arriving and departing flights were delayed or canceled at Los Angeles International Airport.

In the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, a falling tree downed power lines and hit a car. A 55-year-old man was electrocuted and pronounced dead at a hospital, police and fire officials said.

Winds gusting to 60 mph or more lashed the area. Heavy rains turned creeks and rivers into brown torrents and released slews of mud from hillsides burned barren by wildfires. Several stretches of freeways and highways were closed by flooding.</s>A powerful Pacific storm left two people dead in California as winds of more than 70mph downed power lines and brought trees down.

Evacuations of homes in some neighbourhoods were requested due to the potential for mudslides and debris flows.

More than 300 arriving and departing flights were delayed or cancelled at Los Angeles International Airport.

In the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, a falling tree downed power lines and hit a car.

A 55-year-old man was electrocuted and pronounced dead at hospital, police and fire officials said.

Later in the same neighbourhood, a sinkhole swallowed two cars, the second on live TV as viewers watched it teeter on the edge before plunging in.

Firefighters rescued one person from the first car, and the driver got out of the second before it fell. No-one was injured.

Winds gusting to 70mph or more lashed parts of the region, and heavy rains turned creeks and rivers into brown torrents and released large volumes of mud from hillsides burned barren by wildfires.

Several stretches of highways were closed by flooding.

"It's crazy," said Robin Johnson, an academic adviser at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

"It's just pouring down rain. The wind is just going nuts."

In the desert town of Victorville, several cars were washed down a flooded street.

A helicopter rescued one person from the roof of a car but another motorist was found dead in a submerged vehicle, San Bernardino County fire spokesman Eric Sherwin said.

Elsewhere in the county, a 20-mile stretch of State Route 138 in the West Cajon Valley was closed at the scene of a summer wildfire.

Mud sloshed over concrete rail barriers and about two dozen vehicles, including lorries and a school bus, were either mired in mud or became unable to turn around on the closed road and some were abandoned.

Two people in a car were rescued and four students on the bus were removed and taken to a school office, Mr Sherwin said.</s>LOS ANGELES (AP) – A powerful Pacific storm blew into Southern and Central California on Friday with wind-driven heavy rains that downed power lines, electrocuted a man, killed a motorist in a submerged car and disrupted hundreds of flights at airports.

With the storm feeding on an atmospheric river of moisture stretching far out into the Pacific, precautionary evacuations of homes in some neighborhoods were requested due to the potential for mudslides and debris flows.

More than 300 arriving and departing flights were delayed or canceled at Los Angeles International Airport.

In the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, a falling tree downed power lines and hit a car. A 55-year-old man was electrocuted and pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police and fire officials say that later in the same neighborhood, a sinkhole swallowed two cars, the second on live TV as viewers watched it teeter on the edge before plunging in. Firefighters rescued one person from the first car, and the driver got out of the second before it fell. No one was injured.

Winds gusting to 70 mph or more lashed parts of the region. Heavy rains turned creeks and rivers into brown torrents and released slews of mud from hillsides burned barren by wildfires. Several stretches of freeways and highways were closed by flooding.</s>Los Angeles - A severe storm pounding southern and central California has reportedly killed at least four people, causing flash floods and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes.

Los Angeles city fire officials said a 55-year-old man was electrocuted after a tree downed a power line. Several people stranded near the Los Angeles River had to be rescued with inflatable boats.

Two other people died in car accidents in the San Diego area and a fourth was died in a submerged vehicle, local media reported.

Another person was injured after her car fell into a massive sinkhole in Los Angeles. She was trapped until fire crews pulled her out.

The powerful storm blew in from the Pacific Ocean, hitting California on Friday with high winds and heavy rain that downed power lines, leaving 60 000 people in the Los Angeles area without power and prompting hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at airports.

Rushing flood waters swept away cars, downed trees and caused mudslides and sinkholes, the National Weather Service said.

Flash-flood warnings will continue through the weekend in many areas of the West Coast state, which has been hit this winter by a series of storms that have filled reservoirs, bringing respite following a severe five-year drought.

Although the latest storm, which packed heavy wind-driven rain, was mainly affecting southern and central California, rain was also forecast to hit the San Francisco Bay Area in the north.</s>KRON — Rainstorms in Southern California and the Bay Area are affecting flights at several airports this morning, airport officials said.

Flights in and out of Oakland, Mineta San Jose, and San Francisco international airports are all being impacted.

About 50 arrivals and 50 departures were canceled at SFO because of Bay Area and Southern California weather, spokesman Doug Yakel said.

Additionally, SFO flights are experiencing delays of 30 to 45 minutes, and that time is expected increase as the day progresses, Yakel said.

A weather delay program is limiting the number of flights at SFO until midnight.

This program may remain in effect during the weekend and into early next week, Yakel said.

The Federal Aviation Administration decides on a day-by-day basis whether to call for a delay at the airport.

At Mineta San Jose International Airport, Southwest Airlines had canceled 17 flights to Southern California.

“It is significant for a long holiday weekend,” spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said.

However, no delays were reported, Barnes said.

At Oakland International Airport, Southwest Airlines has canceled 20 outbound flights to Southern California.

Southwest has also canceled 22 arrivals into Oakland from an airport in Southern California, airport spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor said.

Southern California is facing possibly one of the strongest storms in six years, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard said.

Three to four inches of rain are expected through early Saturday at Los Angeles International Airport and 2 to 6 inches is expected in Burbank, meteorologist David Sweet said.

The Los Angeles Area is toying with a few record rainfall amounts, Sweet said.

Strong winds are also expected to affect flights into and out of the area. Gusts of up to 50 mph are in the forecast.
Severe storms in southern California prompt flash flood warnings over most of southern and central California, toppling trees and power lines, and delaying over 300 flights from Los Angeles International Airport. Since the largest El Nino of 1997-98 and 2009-10.