Multiple Storms Batter California With Flooding Rains

LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 10: In an aerial view, a car and a pickup truck are seen inside a sinkhole as another storm created by a series of atmospheric rivers inundates California on January 10, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Two vehicles containing four people fell into the sinkhole which had opened up under the road they were driving on during heavy rainfall in the the suburban Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth. Two people were able to climb out before the hole grew larger, further consuming the vehicles. People from the other vehicle were rescued by about 50 firefighters using a high-angle rope and an aerial ladder to lower a firefighter into the hole and raise a young girl and a woman to the surface. Victims were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Powerful storms have pounded much of the West Coast since the beginning of the new year, a striking contrast to the past three years of severe to extreme drought experienced by most of the state. The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which supplies water for millions of Californians, is now above average to date. Last winter, a fraction of average snowfall in the Sierras left the high mountain range virtually devoid of the usual summer snow patches. Though damaging yet not enough to make up for years of drought, the heavy precipitation brings a level of relief from an anticipated fourth year of drought in 2023. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)