LOS ANGELES — Heavy snow and rain pounded California and other parts of the West on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, in the nation’s latest winter storm, while tens of thousands of people in Michigan suffered in freezing temperatures days after one of the worst ice storms in decades caused widespread power outages.
Days of winter storms blacked out nearly one million homes and businesses from coast to coast, closed major roads, caused pileups on highways and snarled air travel. More than 460 flights were canceled and more than 7,400 were delayed Friday across the US, according to FlightAware.com.
In California, the National Weather Service warned of cold, snowy and rainy weather lasting through Saturday, Feb. 25, and issued flash flood warnings through 10 p.m. Friday for Los Angeles, its suburbs and a portion of Ventura County, a region that is home to about six million people.
Cellphones buzzed Friday afternoon with an emergency alert that warned: “This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding.”
Some places in the flash flood warning zone could see up to 23 centimeters of rain, the weather service said.
Authorities warned that heavy rainfall could cause debris flow in some areas burned by wildfires in recent years. Evacuation warnings were issued for some areas, with residents urged to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice.
Blizzard warnings were posted in the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain ranges, where as much as 1.5 meters of snow was expected. Temperatures could drop far below normal in the region, posing a special risk to homeless people.
“Simply put, this will be a historic event for the amount of snow over the higher peaks and lower elevation snow,” according to the regional weather office.
Interstate 5, the West Coast’s major north-south highway, was closed south of the Oregon border as snow fell to the floor of the Sacramento Valley. A high mountain pass north of Los Angeles also was closed for hours before finally reopening late Friday, although traffic was creeping along with a police escort.
In Michigan, hundreds of thousands of people remained without power Friday after a storm earlier this week coated power lines, utility poles and branches with ice as thick as 1.9 centimeters. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Friday for more accountability on restoration efforts by the state’s two largest utilities.
At one point, more than 820,000 customers in Michigan were in the dark. By Friday, that was down to under 600,000, most in the state’s populous southeastern corner around Detroit. But promises of power restoration by Sunday, when low temperatures were expected to climb back above minus 18 Celsius, were of little consolation.
At least three people have died in the storms. (AP)