Flash flooding in northern California leads to soaked roads, water rescues and 1 death

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REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Heavy rain and flash flooding soaked roads in northern California, leading to water rescues from vehicles and homes and at least one confirmed death, authorities said Monday.

In Redding, a city at the northern end of California's Central Valley, one motorist died after calling 911 while trapped in their vehicle as it filled up with water, Mayor Mike Littau posted online Monday. Police said they received numerous calls for drivers stranded in flooded areas.

“Redding police officer swam out into the water, broke the windows and pulled victim to shore. CPR was done but the person did not live,” Littau wrote.

The Redding area saw between 3 and 6 inches (7.6 centimeters and 15.2 centimeters) of rain from Saturday through Sunday night, the National Weather Service said.

As scattered showers lingered into Monday, some local roads remained flooded as street crews worked to clear debris and tow abandoned cars.

Dekoda Cruz waded in knee-deep muddy water to check on a friend’s flooded tire business, where the office was littered with a jumble of furniture and bobbing tires.

Redding's mayor warned of even more dangerous weather in the coming days, and the city distributed free sand bags to residents in preparation for the next storm.

The National Weather Service expects rain through the Christmas week as a series of atmospheric rivers was forecast to make its way through Northern California. A large swath of the Sacramento Valley and surrounding areas were under a flood watch through Friday.

An atmospheric river is a long, narrow band of water vapor that forms over an ocean and flows through the sky, transporting moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes.

The weather pattern was expected to intensify by midweek, which could lead to potential mudslides, rockslides and flooding of creeks and streams, forecasters warned. Up to 6 feet (1.83 meters) of snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada and winds could reach 55 mph (90 kph) in high elevations by Wednesday.

Travel in the mountain passes on Christmas day would be “difficult to near impossible,” the weather service said.

Southern California can also expect a soggy Christmas, with some areas in Ventura County are forecast to get up to 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain by Saturday. Parts of Los Angeles, including areas with burn scars from the deadly Palisades fire, will be under evacuation warnings beginning Tuesday.

The weather service urged people to make backup plans for holiday travel.

Earlier this month, stubborn atmospheric rivers drenched Washington state with nearly 5 trillion gallons (19 trillion liters) of rain in a week, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said. That rainfall was supercharged by warm weather and air, plus unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as a tropical cyclone in Indonesia.

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Associated Press writer Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to this report.