We start in california severe weather is really hitting the state mandatory evacuations are in effect in several areas over 200,000 people are also said to be without power some areas have reported over a foot of rain in the last 48 hours the dangerous storms are causing severe flooding, mudslides and even sinkholes in parts of the Golden State CBS News correspondent Elise Preston you see she’s on the beach in Santa Barbara at least this is where so many people want to live work hard hard to save enough. money to live on the California coast, but that also seems to be part of the problem.
How are first responders dealing with this ongoing threat of severe weather? Well, they’re busy. That is sure. Errol and Lana. Good afternoon. This morning they are monitoring. several road closures in this area part of uh 101 a main highway here in california is closed at the moment uh because there are just globules of mud that are scattered all over the lanes of high meanwhile last night the rescue workers were busy trying to help people out of their vehicles and help people evacuate their homes. Yesterday we stopped at a shelter. I saw a woman. She was visibly shaken. shelter, the woman was crying, she said they got trapped in her vehicle when the water went down and running, so rescuers helped her and her young son out of the car, a sheriff’s deputy went into that shelter, he she was wearing diapers, so you could imagine that the woman was completely ill-prepared for the rain.
I also saw a photo that Santa Barbara took. A man was in a van. He was stuck in high muddy water. The water covered about half of this van which is a large vehicle and the man was getting out of the van on top of the roof of his car where rescuers had put a ladder on top so he could climb onto a spot sure as you can imagine these rescuers have been working around the clock trying to get people to safety and there are so many places that are at risk right now and that is why thousands of evacuation orders are in place part What makes it so difficult is the rapid succession of storms that we just discussed, this is the fifth storm since Christmas, at least, I wonder if there’s any idea when some of these residents will be able to return home.
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Well I think that’s part of the frustrating part. Errol, you mentioned that this area is where people dream that they save their money to try to uh live here one day if they can at the shelter last night we saw a man in a nice uh full suit dressed up and right here these hotels are full so alot people could only go to the shelters so seeing that picture it was just such a juxtaposition there and people were saying they didn’t know when they were going to come home and there are also people who don’t live in this community they are stuck here too because they couldn’t dry themselves, they could work nearby or they dro I went to La for a doctor’s appointment and then they couldn’t get on the road and it’s interesting because they were kind of chill.
I thought I would go crazy. I asked someone how you keep so calm and they said what else. what would i do right now in this situation there’s nothing to do they don’t know when they can go home some people were actually sleeping in their cars trying to figure out the time so they could go home eventually and you know i think part of it is also because for some this is not unexpected, you live on the coast, there will be severe weather if it’s not the earthquakes in California that will catch you, it’s like storm surge and fires, but this feels like slow motion, people you are realizing that climate change is real things like this will become more common and i
wonder from the people you have talked to after the drought what a summer of drought and wildfires what do some people think is in continue to live in a place where this will continue to happen well i just talked to a man who came to this beach to look at the water right after the last storm and he said you know we needed rain but we don’t we were so much he said this is bad and we talked about this it is also coming on the anniversary of deadly landslides landslides five years ago yesterday they killed 23 people in this same area and destroyed a hundred houses so at your point Errol, you’re used to it, but I don’t think it makes it any easier because it’s still a matter of moments, life or your homes could be gone, okay Elise, thank you very much.