Weather security

California, Parched for 5 Years, Is Now Battered by Water

A powerful storm with near hurricane-force winds swept through Southern California on Saturday, killing at least two people and causing widespread disruptions, but providing a definitive respite from five years of drought.

Amid one of the wettest winters in decades, more heavy rainfall was due to strike Northern California starting on Sunday.

“I’ve been a meteorologist here for 25 years and I personally can’t remember a storm that had that much wind with it,” said David Sweet in the Los Angeles office of the National Weather Service. “It was a very impressive storm.”