LOS ANGELES, California — The latest winter storm to hit California caused havoc on roadways Friday and filled the concrete channel of the Los Angeles River — a rare sight in a city that is accustomed to sunshine.
The rain, which began falling on Wednesday, coincided with cold temperatures, meaning that the storm is bringing heavy snowfall to the mountains around Los Angeles — and even to the city itself, at high elevations.
Driving conditions became extremely dangerous, with downed trees and flooded highways prompting warnings from local officials, who urged drivers not to take their chances by pushing through hazardous thoroughfares.
Homeowners struggled with flooded garages and leaking roofs — a persistent problem throughout a winter that was predicted to be the third straight dry season in an ongoing drought, but which has brought historic rainfall.
The one consolation: impressive rainbows have appeared in the sky periodically throughout the week of storms.
The rain is expected to last through Saturday evening, when it is expected to taper off, allowing cleanup to begin.
Locals have criticized state authorities for their failure to build adequate infrastructure to capture the rainfall, some 95% of which simply washes out to the ocean instead of being put to human or environmental uses.
The storms are thought to contain enough water, if captured, to supply the state’s needs for at least a decade.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.