1: a total of 19 people have been confirmed dead and a 5-year-old boy is missing after getting swept away by floodwaters in california. us president joe biden declared a major disaster in the state on saturday night and governor gavin newsom urged californians to remain vigilant.
paragraph 2: between 26 december and 9 january, parts of california saw up to six times more rain than usual, according to the nws. storms have battered the state in recent weeks, flooding communities and forcing evacuations. last week, some areas of santa barbara received more than 410mm (16in) of rain in two days. over 11,000 homes in the state remained without power on sunday.
paragraph 3: the rain has raised the water level in rivers across the state and caused sinkholes in roads. one to three feet (30 to 91cm) of new snow fell in parts of california’s sierra nevada range over the weekend. the scale of the damage is still not fully clear, with 25 million people in california under flood watch at the weekend. there are hopes that the weather should improve this week, with the nws saying that drier weather should arrive on tuesday.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64288263?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
