Los Angeles saw over 500 mudslides during deadly California storms

LOS ANGELES (AP) - One of the wettest storms in Southern California history unleashed over 500 mudslides in the Los Angeles area after dumping more than half the amount of rainfall the city typically gets in a season in just two days, and officials warned Tuesday that the threat was not over yet.

The storm continued to pose new hazards, with the National Weather Service issuing a rare tornado warning for San Diego County. The warning was canceled shortly after it was issued, with forecasters explaining that the storm no longer appeared capable of producing a twister even if it briefly turned some San Diego streets into rivers.

Officials expressed relief that the storm hadn’t yet killed anyone or caused a major catastrophe in Los Angeles despite its size and intensity, though there were six deaths reported elsewhere, including one early Tuesday at the California-Mexico border when someone trying to enter the United States was swept up by a swollen Tijuana River channel, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass thanked residents for heeding calls to stay off roads and urged people to continue doing so through the end of Tuesday, when the rain was expected to stop.

"Los Angeles can handle very big challenges. And if we stick together, we will come out so far ahead," she said.

The slow-moving storm that blew into the city on Sunday and then parked itself could still produce fierce downpours of up to an inch (roughly 2.5 centimeters) of rain in an hour, the weather service said. That could be particularly precarious since the soil is already saturated after back-to-back atmospheric rivers walloped California in less than a week.

Crews have responded to 520 mudslides – as of 10 a.m. Feb. 7. In addition to the mudslides, 433 trees reportedly fell down in addition to 659 reports of potholes popping up around Los Angeles. On Wednesday morning, at least 30 buildings were yellow-tagged, meaning residents could go back to get their belongings but could not stay there because of the damage. 12 buildings were red-tagged, meaning no entry. 

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Bass said the city does not yet have the total number of homes that were damaged by the storm and noted the city’s emergency shelters were full.

Dion Peronneau was trying to get her artwork and books out of her home, which was smashed into by a mudslide.

"Eight feet of mud is pressed up against my window that is no longer there," she said. "They put up boards to make sure no more mud can come in."

Despite the damage, she said she was grateful that no one was hurt when the mud knocked her sliding glass doors off their frame and came pouring into her home of 25 years.

Most of Southern California remained under flood watches, and the weather service warned people to remain on high alert as swollen and fast-moving creeks and rivers increase the risk of drowning and the need for swift-water rescues.

"This has truly been a historic storm for Los Angeles," Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles-area bureau, told reporters, noting that the city had just recorded its third-wettest two-day stretch since recordkeeping began in the 1870s.

Between 6 and 12 inches (15.2 and 30.5 centimeters) of rain has fallen over the city and saturated the ground, which can increase the risk of landslides long after a storm passes, officials said.

An evacuation order remained in place for some residents in a Los Angeles canyon area that was scarred by a 2022 fire. Scarring from fires contributed to a tragic 2018 mudslide in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, that destroyed 130 homes and killed 23 people, making it one of the deadliest in California history.