3 dead as storm pummels California, causing flooding and dozens of mudslides in L.A. area

The rain that has hit Southern California and San Diego will not be over when drivers go to work tomorrow, forecasters said.

“Tomorrow on Tuesday, especially during the commute, it’s still going to be raining. And then the storm is not over with Tuesday afternoon,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Alex Tardy said in a video update this afternoon.

Thunderstorms could be possible, and off-and-on rain will fall in the area through Thursday, Tardy said.

San Onofre Beach in northern San Diego County, closer to Los Angeles, got around 4 inches of rain over two days, the weather service said. Oceanside got a little more than 2 inches. Rainfall totals in San Diego through tomorrow night could be 2 inches, according to the weather service.

While the rain has eased in some parts of California, more than 250,000 customers in the state remained without electricity tonight, according to tracking website poweroutage.us.

Many of those were in Northern California and near the San Francisco Bay Area as of 8 p.m. Earlier today, around 350,000 customers had been reported without power. Customers are the number of homes and businesses, and not the same as the number of people affected.

Pacific Gas & Electric called the storm, in the terms of number of outages, among the most damaging single-day weather events on record. High winds knocked down trees or threw other objects into power lines, the company said. It said it had around 3,000 people working on restoration efforts.

Firefighters rescued a woman from a homeless encampment that became surrounded by floodwater in the Santa Ana River during a rainstorm in San Bernardino today.

A little more than 11 inches of rain had fallen in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles as of this afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

Sepulveda Canyon also had gotten more than 11 inches of rain as of 4:30 p.m. local time, as had part of Topanga, the NWS said.

Downtown Los Angeles got more than 7 inches of rain, the weather service said in a statement, and Beverly Hills got almost 8 inches.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, winds lashed the region over the weekend. The top wind report there was at Pablo Point, at 102 mph. Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, recorded 89 mph, the weather service for the region said.

Santa Barbara Airport reopened earlier today, after “significant flooding" occurred at the airfield. The airport resumed normal operations at 1 p.m. local time, it said.

A flood advisory remained in effect until 12:45 a.m. overnight, the National Weather Service said. Moderate and locally heavy rain could return there this evening, the agency said.

A flood watch was in place until 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Even if the rain appears to slacken following 6 to 11 inches that have fallen in the Los Angeles area, it will take very little to cause additional mudslides and other debris flows, a National Weather Service meteorologist warned this evening.

Ariel Cohen, the meteorologist in charge of the weather service office for Los Angeles, said that the storms were historic and that it was “one of the wettest storm systems to impact the greater Los Angeles area since the history of records of weather have been made, going back to the 1870s.”

Light to moderate rain will continue to intermittently affect the Los Angeles area over the next several hours, Cohen said at a news conference around 5:30 p.m.

“The ground is extremely saturated — supersaturated. It’s not able to hold any additional water before sliding,” Cohen said. “It’s not going to take much rain for additional landslides, mudslides, rockslides and other debris flows to occur.”

“The risk for additional landslides remains very high, and everyone needs to remain at a high state of readiness as we head through the overnight hours,” he said.

In a cellphone call during a news conference in Los Angeles tonight, President Joe Biden said that the federal government would provide whatever assistance is needed following a major storm that caused mudslides.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass held the phone to a microphone during the news conference, which had begun before the call.

“We’ll get any help on the way as soon as you guys request it,” Biden said. "So just let me know. That's why I'm calling."

Biden said he also had just spoken with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was well-positioned to provide assistance.

Bass said earlier that she also spoke with Vice President Kamala Harris, who represented California in the Senate.

The storms that have pounded Los Angeles and caused mudslides has affected people all over the city, including around 100 unhoused people living in a tiny home community, the mayor said.

The people in that community, which flooded, were being moved to a nearby shelter, Mayor Karen Bass said.

There have been more than 120 mudslides and debris flows in the city because of the rain that has saturated hillsides, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said this evening. Around 6 to 11 inches of rain has fallen over the region, she said.

“As this storm continues, there are many water-soaked hillsides that have the potential to slide,” Crowley said.

Bass said some homeowners have been devastated by the damage caused by mudslides. “This has been a tough day for our city, a tough day for Angelenos,” she said.

She added that people should remain off the roads and that the weather situation is not over.

The return of rain to parts of Southern California, already drenched by heavy precipitation, prompted the extensions of flood advisories for Ventura and Los Angeles counties, forecasters said.

The flood advisories for both were extended until 9 p.m. local time, the National Weather Service office for the region said on X.

Four people were found safe after an avalanche north of Las Vegas, authorities said today.

The avalanche was reported in Lee Canyon, about 50 miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas, Clark County officials said.

Las Vegas police said on X the avalanche triggered a search-and-rescue effort after “several” people were reported missing. Police said later that four people were reported missing.

“Everyone has been located and is safe. We are currently assisting people off the mountain,” police said.

The Lee Canyon ski resort area has recorded 11½ inches of snow in the last 24 hours, according to its website.

The storm system that has dumped snow in the area is the same one impacting California today. The area has also received nearly 3 feet of snow in the last week thanks to two atmospheric rivers.

The California Highway Patrol this afternoon was temporarily holding traffic on parts of Interstate 80 after “multiple spin outs over Donner Summit,” the agency’s Truckee office said.

Traffic was being held eastbound at Cisco, the CHP said.

It was snowing in the Donner Summit area this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. In a first storm, over a foot of new snow had fallen in that area as of Saturday morning, the agency has said. The area was under a winter watch until 10 o’clock tonight.

The summit and pass are named after the famous Donner-Reed migrant party, which became stranded in the snow by Truckee Lake in 1846. Some of them ate the dead to survive.

LOS ANGELES — Standing near the aftermath of a mudslide that damaged homes and destroyed vehicles, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass urged residents to stay home this afternoon.

“Even when the rains die down, there’s still possibilities of significant damage,” Bass said as she toured damage in the Studio City area. “And we want people to, one, stay inside. This crisis is not over with yet.”

A debris flow last night on Lockridge Road significantly damaged two homes, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. In all. nine homes were evacuated, and there were no injuries. Bass pointed to two cars that were destroyed.

Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said: "This is still an active storm event. You can see the running water and how much power can come behind this."

The chief operating officer of California utility Pacific Gas & Electric said the storm that hit the state yesterday was one of the most damaging single-day storms on record in terms of outages.

Sumeet Singh said the storm that hit its service area, which covers a huge area of the state from Northern to near Southern California, yesterday was “intense.”

“In terms of outage totals, this was one of the top three most damaging single day storms on record,” he said.

As of 9 a.m. today, about 440,000 of the utility's 5.5 million electric customers were without service, Singh said.

Wind gusts in Marin and Santa Clara counties, which are in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in Kern County, north of Los Angeles, were higher than 80 mph, he said.

“The strong winds caused trees and other objects to fly into our equipment and take out power,” Singh said.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said this afternoon that the worst of the storm has passed but that crews were still clearing debris and assessing damage.

Climate change is warming the atmosphere and the ocean, and both dynamics most likely contributed to a more intense atmospheric river storm’s battering Los Angeles today, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. 

Atmospheric rivers are streams of water vapor in the sky. Swain said the moisture for this storm system originated about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. 

“In a warming atmosphere and as oceans warm along with the atmosphere, the ceiling on how intense atmospheric rivers can become and the ceiling on how intense precipitation can become increases pretty rapidly with warming,” Swain said in a YouTube briefing. “There’s fingerprints of human-caused warming all over events like this.” 

California has warmed by more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit since preindustrial times, and Swain said the atmosphere can hold 3% to 4% more water vapor for every degree Fahrenheit of warming. 

Ocean temperatures off California have been 2 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit above average this season, and that additional heat has most likely boosted the storm and contributed to intense rainfall in this “historic and record-breaking rainfall event," Swain said.

An evacuation order in Ventura County was downgraded today to an evacuation warning, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services.

The order was downgraded for "Matilija Canyon/North Fork/Camino Cielo (Unincorporated Ojai)," but there is still no access to the area "due to storm damage to the fair weather crossing," the department said.

Evacuation notifications for the Ventura RV Resort, Foster Park community and Old Creek Road areas were also lifted today.

"Ventura County may see an additional ½ inch of rain in coasts and valleys and up to 2 inches in the mountain areas," the Ventura County emergency services office warned. "The storm is still capable of producing thunderstorms and widespread shower activity is expected through Tuesday."

All the evacuation orders for Santa Barbara County have been canceled as of 12 p.m. PT today.

"Several roads and trails may be inaccessible or closed throughout the county due to storm impacts," the county warned in a news release. "Ground saturation may cause continued rock falls, minor debris flows and landslides, and tree falls even if it is not raining."

A 41-year-old man died in Sacramento County yesterday when a tree fell on him during a storm system that brought heavy rain and strong winds to the region.

Chad Ensey of Carmichael died at his home from blunt force injuries, a county spokesperson said.

It is the third weather-related death in California connected to the storms.

Two Disney parks in Anaheim closed early yesterday and will do so again tonight, Disneyland officials said.

Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park closed an hour early yesterday, at 10 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively, according to the officials.

The neighboring parks will both close at 8 o'clock tonight because of the inclement weather, officials said.

LOS ANGELES — Fire officials have responded to over 130 flooding incidents and 49 mud and debris flows, extinguished half a dozen structure fires, and conducted several water rescues for stranded motorists since the storm began this weekend, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin M. Crowley said today.

Los Angeles police have also responded to over 65 traffic collisions resulting in injuries since the storm began, Crowley said.

She stressed that "the hazards of this storm have not passed" and said the city is anticipating "another wave of heavy rain this afternoon."

Today, the LAFD evacuated 16 residents from Lockridge Road in Studio City due to mudslides that caused “significant damage” to two homes, and authorities are responding to a mudslide on Beverly Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Meanwhile, an evacuation order for La Tuna Canyon remains in effect.

She noted that this morning the LAFD received unconfirmed reports of a victim in the Pacoima Wash, which feeds into the Los Angeles River, but searches yielded no results.

Santa Barbara Airport remains closed “until further notice,” according to an update on the airport's website.

The airfield was hit with “significant flooding” in the storms rolling through California and cleanup efforts are underway. 

Fire personnel and swift water rescue teams have been pre-positioned across California as the powerful atmospheric river system continues to batter the state, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services announced today. 

In Los Angeles County, 10 fire engines are at the ready, two dozers, rescue swimmers, four swift water rescue teams, and other assets. In Orange County, five engines are pre-positioned along with two dozers, two swift water rescue teams and a helicopter with a rescue swimmer. Meanwhile, San Mateo County is prepared with 10 engines and two government dispatchers. 

A breakdown of assets assigned to each county can be found here.

Debris flow early Monday caused “significant damage” to five homes in Beverly Crest, a neighborhood in the Santa Monica mountains, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. 

No one was trapped in the flow, but 10 people were displaced by it. Firefighters assisted in evacuations, the department said. 

The city’s Department of Building and Safety will assess and red tag any “seriously compromised structures.”

Preliminary data from the National Weather Service shows just how much rain has fallen in California since Saturday morning.

A person died Sunday after a tree fell into a home in Boulder Creek, California, a mountain community in the Santa Cruz mountains about 30 miles southwest of San Jose, authorities said.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office told NBC News that deputies responded to the home just before 3:30 p.m. local time and found one resident had made it out of the house, but another was trapped inside.

“Unfortunately, the resident inside sustained injuries from the tree falling into the home and was pronounced deceased at the scene,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson said. The identity of the victim was not released, pending family notification.

The Boulder Creek fatality appears to be the second in the state connected to the severe weather that hit Sunday.

Rescue crews were able to pull several people, three dogs and nine puppies from flooding along the Guadalupe River. KNTV’s Marianne Favro reports.

In this weekend's deluge, 9.94 inches of rain was recorded near the University of California, Los Angeles; 6.33 inches north of Culver City; and 3.35 inches in Santa Barbara.

Meanwhile, a top wind gust of 138 mph was clocked in Ward Peak near Lake Tahoe, 120 mph in Upper Bull at Patterson Mountain, and 94 mph in Grapevine, California.

Today, 38 million people remain under flood alerts across much of California and into parts of southern Arizona, 34 million are under wind alerts and 1 million under winter alerts. 

Three to 5 more inches of rain are anticipated through Wednesday morning in Los Angeles, 2 to 4 inches in San Diego, and 7 to 10 inches in the mountains. Up to 4 to 6 feet of snow is possible in the Sierra through Tuesday.

High-risk outlook days are rare, yet account for a majority of flood-related damages and a large percentage of flood-related deaths.

For the second day in a row, a high risk for heavy rainfall is in effect for portions of Southern California. A high risk is the highest-designation flood risk issued by the Weather Prediction Center. Marginal, slight and moderate risks are the lower categories often issued before a high risk is considered. A high risk means there is a 70% chance that rainfall amounts and/or rates will spark flash flooding.

According to NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center, between 2010 and 2020 high-risk days accounted for more than 80% of flood-related damages and nearly 40% of flood-related fatalities.

When Los Angeles was included in the high-risk area Sunday, it was the first time that the Los Angeles metro, specifically, was ever placed under a high risk for excessive rainfall that could cause flash flooding. Monday became the second day in a row for Los Angeles.

A man died Sunday after a tree fell on him in Yuba City in Northern California, police said. The area was hit with heavy rain and wind yesterday by an atmospheric river.

Yuba City police responded to an address on Tres Picos Drive around 7 p.m. local time and found the man underneath “a very large redwood tree in his backyard.” Lifesaving measures were administered, but he could not be revived. 

Police said it appeared the man was possibly using a ladder to try to clear the tree away from his home when it fell. A neighbor, who called authorities, said they last saw the man around 3 p.m. and believe they heard the tree fall around 5 p.m.

The man was not identified.

As rain continues to batter the Golden State, over 529,000 homes and businesses are without power as of 6:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. ET). 

Most of the outages are concentrated in Northern and central California, with Mendocino County reporting over 23,400 customers without power, over 38,000 in Sonoma County, and over 54,000 out in San Mateo County.

In Los Angeles, more than 4,000 out of 2 million customers are experiencing outages. 

The high risk for flash flooding continues Monday for California — after the UCLA area clocked nearly 10 inches of rain and a month’s worth of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday. 

About 80% of flood-related damages and 40% of flood-related fatalities occur on days when high-risk warnings for heavy rainfall and flash flooding are issued by the NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. 

As of Monday morning, torrential rain is drenching Southern California, and flash flooding and debris flows have been reported the Hollywood Hills area. 

The highest flash flood risk stretches from Los Angeles to Long Beach and inland toward Big Bear Lake. The downpour will continue Tuesday from Los Angeles to San Diego and move into parts of Arizona, and showers will linger into Wednesday.

Three people were rescued from a tree in San Bernardino County early Monday after the car they were in got “submerged in rapid flood waters,” fire officials said.

A swift water rescue team responded to the three stranded people around 12:30 a.m. at Keenbrook Road west of Cajon Boulevard, San Bernardino County Fire said. 

All three were successfully rescued, the department in an update after 2 a.m. They did not suffer any injuries but were being evaluated for hypothermia. 

Eyewitness video captured the Mission Creek starting to overtop a road bridge in Santa Barbara during yesterday’s storm.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Residents who had stayed put in downtown Santa Barbara were being urged to leave their homes by police who were going door-to-door in an armored vehicle last night.

An entire intersection was underwater and creeks had overflowed. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown converted Friday night’s evacuation warnings for two areas to mandatory evacuations effective early Saturday afternoon.

Lights are reflected along a wet street in San Francisco, as atmospheric river storms approached yesterday.

The total rainfall for parts of Southern California could reach between 8 and 14 inches over a 48-hour period, deepening the risk of flooding as the atmospheric river moves over the state, the National Weather Service said in an updated forecast at 12 a.m. PT (3.a.m ET) today.

"Ongoing showers and thunderstorms will continue to produce very heavy rainfall," the update said, adding that a high risk of excessive rainfall was likely to continue, with 5 to 8 inches possible today alone.

"Increasingly saturated conditions and ongoing flooding will be further exacerbated by this additional rainfall, continuing the threat for life-threatening, locally catastrophic flash, urban, and small stream flooding, as well as a threat for debris flows and mudslides," the NWS said.  

Meanwhile, 2 to 3 inches of rain are expected in mountainous regions higher than 5,000 feet, with winds of up to 60 mph creating hazardous whiteout conditions.

The deluge of rain falling on Los Angeles is officially record-breaking: Downtown LA received 4.1 inches of rain yesterday, smashing the previous daily record for February of 2.55 inches, set way back in 1927, the city's National Weather Service station said on X.

It was the third wettest day for February since 1877 and tied for the 10th wettest day overall. The actual wettest day ever was in 1938 when 5.88 inches fell.

Vehicles and farm equipment are flooded at the Mickelson Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma, Calif., yesterday.

The extreme weather events battering much of California ARE set to continue throughout today and beyond, according to NBC News Meteorologist Michelle Grossman.

Speaking on Early Today this morning, she said: "This continues to be a really tough situation. We're looking at that life-threatening flash flooding continuing throughout tomorrow, continuous rain, heavy snow — we're going to be measuring the snow in feet."

She continued: "And we're looking at the chance of more mudslides, evacuations and power outages because those winds are going to be gusting."

Some 38 million people are affected by flood warnings while in higher areas moving into Nevada and Utah some 30 million are under wind alert warnings, she said.

Tomorrow will bring more heavy rain across southern California and more snow in the mountains.

Toppled trees have brought down power lines, wrecked cars and damaged homes in Sacramento, California. KCRA’s Lee Anne Denyer reports.

Some 680,000 homes and businesses were without power in the early hours of this morning, according to the poweroutage.us website, which tracks power connectivity nationally.

The worst affected counties were Mendocino, Yuba, Butte and Placer where 51,000 out of 146,000 customers were cut off.

The overall number of disconnections is falling however, from an overnight high of more than 780,000.

Firefighters rescued 16 people from Studio City, Los Angeles, late last night after debris carried by heavy rainfall caused significant damage to two homes.

All nine homes on Lockridge Road were evacuated, including pets, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in an update. "Thankfully, no one was injured and there are no medical needs," the statement said.

Emergency shelter is being offered to the displaced residents if needed. The homes are others in the area are now being assessed by the LA Department of Building and Safety, the Department of Water and gas suppliers.

Between 4 and 8 inches of rain have been forecast overnight.

A boat moored offshore is tossed by rough waters as the second and more powerful of two atmospheric river storms arrives to Santa Barbara, Calif., on Sunday.

San Bernardino County tonight declared a state of emergency due to "extreme" rain and snow expected through Wednesday.

The declaration clears the way for federal and state aid that will likely be needed during and after the storm, the county said in a press release.

"The National Weather Service has predicted catastrophic and life-threatening flooding for the San Bernardino valley and coastal slopes of the San Bernardino mountains tonight through Tuesday with showers chances lasting through Friday," the press release said. "Travel and commuting will be difficult."

Residents were also warned of small stream and urban flooding, as well as rising rivers.

The county "is taking all available steps to keep our residents safe and we are making preparations to meet their needs during and after the storms," county board chair and Third District Supervisor Dan Rowe said in the press release.

Cal State Los Angeles doesn't want students, faculty and staff members risking life and limb to get to its campuses tomorrow, so it's instructing them to stay put and learn online.

In a letter to the Cal State LA community, President Berenecea Johnson Eanes said that classes tomorrow will be held remotely and that faculty and staff members can work from home if their roles allow it.

Monday events at the main campus on the eastern edge of the city and at Cal State LA Downtown are canceled, and student services will be unavailable, she said.

The president said holding classes exclusively online was "the safest course of action."

An intersection in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles flooded tonight, stranding several vehicles and those inside them to await rescue, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson said.

The intersection of Oxnard Street and Donna Avenue in the Tarzana neighborhood was put under 2 to 3 feet of water amid heavy rain, the spokesperson, Nicholas Prange, said in an LAFD email alert.

LAFD swiftwater rescue teams were working to pull those people, who were not injured, out of those vehicles, he said. The motorists and any passengers did the right thing by staying put, he said.

"Thankfully the vehicle occupants have remained in their vehicles and not risked going out into the deep water with unpredictable terrain and currents below the surface," Prange said.

California State University, San Bernardino, said classes at its main campus, as well as those at its campus in Palm Desert, would be closed tomorrow.

"Faculty are encouraged to move instruction to virtual modalities and to communicate with students as soon as possible," the institution said in a notice to staff members and students. "Students should check with their faculty."

The two campuses will technically remain open, but for "essential operations only," the school said.

"Those staff who can telecommute are encouraged to do so," it said.

Nearly 1 million people in California were without power as the Pacific storm battered the Bay Area and set its sights on Southern California.

Most of the outages were in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, where 134,104 electricity customers were in the dark tonight, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

The total number of homes, businesses and facilities without electricity went down from 913,283 to 893,420 as the night progressed, according to the tracker. However, a vast majority of Los Angeles County's 10 million residents were warned of imminent flash flooding, which could boost the number again.

A flash flood warning is in effect tonight for most of Los Angeles County's 10 million residents, including those in the cities of L.A., Long Beach, Pasadena and Pomona, according to the National Weather Service.

A warning means flooding is imminent or already underway. The warnings were also sent to cellphones of residents who allow wireless emergency alerts.

The warning urges residents to "move immediately to higher ground" and avoid walking or driving through floodwaters.

Flash flooding and hurricane-force winds are in the forecast for this Pacific storm, but it's also making waves offshore — big waves.

The National Weather Service said today that waves as large as 23 feet were looming off the Central California coast, with waves along the coast south of the Channel Islands, including Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, reaching 19 feet offshore.

The forecast from the weather service's Ocean Prediction Center is aimed at boaters and did not estimate waves at the shoreline. It warns that mariners could encounter even larger waves in the open seas: "Individual waves may be more than twice the significant wave height," the forecast said.

A high surf advisory for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, effective through tomorrow night, says waves as high as 20 feet could break along the coast. A high surf advisory means waves have the potential to threaten life and property.

The advisory came with a coastal flooding advisory for Port San Luis, Avila Beach, Oceano and Cayucos, where flooding was expected, the weather service said.

The swell is coming from an odd direction for this time of year: the southwest, more associated with summer waves. But this parallels the storm's counterclockwise swing and its atmospheric river, a vapor trail that has soaked up tropical precipitation near Hawaii and swept it northeast to California.

A high surf advisory for Orange and San Diego counties calls for waves as high as 10 feet along beaches, and it is also in effect through tomorrow night.

Video posted to X showed Mission Creek in Santa Barbara overflowing onto people's backyards.

Santa Barbara County was one of the counties for which Newsom declared an emergency, allowing for the activation of the National Guard and the facilitation of faster recovery efforts if needed.

LOS ANGELES — Several inches of rain fell over parts of Southern California tonight as a powerful storm began barreling into the region.

Top two-day rainfall totals as of 6 p.m. were over 5 inches in some areas, the National Weather Service's office in Los Angeles/Oxnard reported. The highest total so far was recorded in Matilija Canyon, in Ventura County, which got 5.91 inches, according to the weather service.

Farther south in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, Agoura Hills got 3.41 inches and Woodland Hills got 2.28 inches.

Heavy rain was expected to continue falling in the Los Angeles area through the night.

Some California universities are telling students to stay home tomorrow as they expect the effects of the storm to make it difficult, if not perilous, to make it to class.

Among them are the University of California, Santa Barbara, which serves a community expected to be hit hard by rain, wind and floodwaters. Chancellor Henry T. Yang said in a notice to the campus community that instructors have been told to conduct virtual classes if possible.

Cal State Northridge in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley is keeping its campus open, but all classes have been canceled and all events are to be rescheduled, its police chief, Alfredo B. Fernandez, said in a notice to the campus community. Instruction may still be held virtually, on a class-by-class basis, he said.

Cal State Fullerton in Orange County, south of L.A., said in a statement that classes would be conducted remotely, and staff members were encouraged to work from home if possible.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, California State University Channel Islands and Cal State Long Beach all said they planned to be open but encouraged flexibility among instructors who may have students who can't make it to campus. Virtual learning was a class-by-class possibility for the Channel Islands and Long Beach institutions, spokespeople for the campuses said.

SAN DIEGO — A strong Pacific storm system is expected to bring “life threatening flooding” and heavy snow to California today and early into the week, according to the National Weather Service.

On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a storm-related state of emergency as federal forecasters said an atmospheric river of precipitation drawn from waters north of Hawaii was producing a firehose of rain and snow for the state.

Read the full story here.