California storm: Possible tornado hit state while Los Angeles was under flash flood warnings

The National Weather Service reported on Wednesday morning that the most widespread showers will continue to move inland into San Diego County with brief heavy downpours.

Jill Shinefield stood in front of the yellow caution tape in the drizzle. Behind her the scene was chaotic, with debris strewn across the road and an abandoned black Nissan half submerged in mud.

“It was mayhem,” she said. “We’ve lived here 23 years, we’ve never, not even remotely, had anything like this before.” Read Mike Bedigan’s on-the-ground account of Los Angeles’ flooding for The Independent.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city was looking toward helping people recover from the weather’s pounding. Officials will seek federal emergency money to help move homeless people out of shelters and to aid owners of damaged hillside homes where insurance companies wouldn’t cover the losses, she said.

But counting the damaged homes might take a while, she warned at a Tuesday evening news conference.

“The hillsides are soaked, some of them are still moving,” Bass said. “So hopefully no more homes will be damaged, but it’s too early to tell.” The Associated Press

Search and rescue crews are looking for a US Marine Corps helicopter which disappeared en route to San Diego as a severe storm battered the region.

The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter was reported “overdue” after it failed to arrive at Miramar Air Station in southern California on Tuesday night.

The helicopter, which had five Marines on board, had been traveling from Las Vegas, Nevada.

It has been the second wettest, three-day period in downtown Los Angeles since people began making records, the National Weather Service said on Wednesday morning.

The area received another inch-and-a-half of rain on Tuesday, following four inches on Monday, and nearly three inches on Sunday.

This totalled 8.51 inches, according to NWS. This is the 2nd highest consecutive, three-day total since records began in downtown LA in 1877.

February 2024 is also now the 15th wettest of any month in this part of LA since records began.

The San Diego area was bearing the brunt of the weather on Wednesday with scattered showers.

Areas farther north will see more isolated showers through this afternoon, the National Weather Service reported.

More widespread rain and high elevation snow were expected to develop overnight into Thursday.

The system that brought severe impacts to California was captured from space as it churned its way across the Pacific.

The atmospheric river, which drags moisture in from the ocean, was responsible for record-breaking rainfall and heavy snow across western parts of the US.

Satellite imagery, published on Wednesday, showed the system moving its way on to the Southwest, bringing heavy precipitation along with it.