California

"L.A. saw 592 slides in one week, a reminder that excessive precipitation events set off more than flooding."

"For decades, a graveyard of corroding barrels has littered the seafloor just off the coast of Los Angeles. It was out of sight, out of mind — a not-so-secret secret that haunted the marine environment until a team of researchers came across them with an advanced underwater camera."

"A broad coalition of pesticide-reform groups representing California farmworkers and their families called on the state attorney general to investigate systematic civil rights violations last week at a press briefing in Watsonville, a strawberry-growing stronghold about 90 miles south of San Francisco."

"The latest in a series of wet winter storms gained strength in California early Monday, with forecasters warning of possible flooding, hail, strong winds and even brief tornadoes as the system moves south over the next few days."

"Cases of Valley fever in California broke records last year after nine back-to-back atmospheric rivers slammed the state and caused widespread, record-breaking flooding."

"When Varlin Higbee eyes the scrubby forest of pinyon pines and juniper trees that fill the high desert outside this old Union Pacific Railroad town, there’s just one thought that crosses his mind: “They’re just a wildfire waiting to happen,” the Lincoln County commissioner says of the low, bushy trees."

"Doctors have reported surges of gastrointestinal illness when intense storms like this week’s atmospheric rivers overwhelm wastewater treatment plants and flood communities with raw sewage."

"The same flood-control system that protected L.A. from the atmospheric rivers also saw tens of billions of gallons of stormwater flush to the sea."

"A firehose of rain has parked over Southern California, worsening the risk of flooding. At least two people have died as a result of falling trees and more than 16 million people are under a rare high risk of excessive rainfall, with downtown Los Angeles receiving 75% of its annual rainfall in only the second month of 2024."