Heavy rainfall pounded drought-stricken Northern and Southern California on Tuesday, but the downpour might have been too much of a good thing as locals fear the storm will bring mudslides.
The streets of California were filled with cars submerged in water, with some areas seeing more rain in one day than the entire month of December 2013, CBS News reported.
"We're getting saturated, and it's a gully-washer," Linda Lovelace, who lives in Santa Cruz, told the station. "The leaves are just coming down and clogging the drains."
Mandatory and voluntary evacuations were ordered for Camarillo Springs and Orange County's Silverado Canyon in anticipation of mudslides that could threaten local homes. Many neighborhoods are normally protected by surrounding vegetation that keeps the soil stable, but with a recent spike in wildfires, the vegetation has been wiped out, the Associated Press reported.
This past Sunday, a minor storm caused a mud flow from the Santa Monica Mountains that blocked parts of the Pacific Coast Highway west of Malibu, according to the AP. The mountains were weakened by a 2013 fire that spanned over 40 miles.
The rainfall, though record-breaking, is far from what's needed to end the three-year drought and bring water levels in Sierra Nevada's snowpack, which provides most of the state's water, back to normal. Right now, the water level is 24 percent of what's normal for this time of year, the AP reported.
"We need a lot of wet storm systems above normal rainfall for the year, probably for the next two or three years," Eric Boldt, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told CBS News.
Fears of debris and mudslides may not let up anytime soon, with more rain expected in some areas like San Francisco and Santa Cruz on Thursday. Law enforcement said they are prepared for any emergency.
"I've got officers out there, I've got officers on standby, officers on overtime," Glendora police chief Tim Staab told the station. "We are going to be here until this thing passes."
