'Disastrous flooding' warning in California as another storm hits

Disastrous flooding could hit parts of California this weekend, forecasters warned Friday, as the eighth storm in succession barrelled in, with already water-logged land unable to soak up any more rain.

The most populous US state has been pummelled by near-record rainfall over a very wet three weeks that have already caused flooding, landslides and widespread power outages.

At least 19 people are known to have died as communities have struggled to cope with the constant deluge.

On Friday yet another system threatened the state, with forecasters warning the Monterey Peninsula could be cut off and the whole city of Salinas – home to 160,000 people – flooded.

"The entire lower Salinas Valley will have disastrous flooding," the National Weather Service said.

"The entire city of Salinas is in danger of flooding. Most of Castroville will flood. All roads near the Salinas River will be flooded and impassable. 90,000 acres or more of agricultural land in the Salinas Valley will have disastrous flooding.

"Many roads, homes and agricultural land areas in the Salinas Valley will have major flood damage."

The Salinas River, already swollen by weeks of torrential rain, was expected to peak some time Friday, breaching its banks in a flood that could last until Sunday.

Evacuation orders and warnings were widespread, with forecasters saying major roads could become impassable – including highways that link the Monterey Peninsula with the rest of the county.

"Residents both on the peninsula and in the Salinas area should expect to be cut off for two to three days," Monterey County officials said earlier this week.

Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto told reporters Thursday that residents were being warned they could be trapped by the floodwater.

"This is a slow-moving event" and not all places will be impacted at once, she said.

"The river crests at different times."

The chain of storms has sent workers rushing out during respites in the rain to clear up the mess before the next deluge hits.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have been left without power at various times, as infrastructure has taken a battering.

And it's not over yet, forecasters say.

"The ongoing unsettled weather in the West associated with the active Atmospheric River pattern unfortunately continues into this weekend with another couple rounds of heavy precipitation forecast," the NWS said.

Over the mountains that was translating into snow, with more than three feet (a metre) expected over the weekend in the Sierra Nevada range, making travel dangerous or impossible.

Among the 19 to have died were drivers who have been found in submerged cars, people struck by falling trees, a husband and wife killed in a rockfall, and people whose bodies were discovered in floodwaters.

Winter storms are not unusual in California, where most of the annual rain comes in a fairly concentrated period.

But global warming, driven by the industrial-scale use of fossil fuels, is supercharging storms, making them wetter and wilder.

At the same time, the western United States is aridifying, with much of the region in the 23rd year of a drought.

Hydrologists say the recent rains are helping – California has received an average of almost 23cm of rain since late December – but are not a fix.

"A few weeks of storms is not enough in this drought for California, but it certainly is nice. It's certainly making a good dent," Jay Lund, director of University of California, Davis, told the San Francisco Chronicle.