- Langers edge Tiger and son Charlie in PNC Championship playoff
- Explosive batsman Jacobs gets New Zealand call-up for Sri Lanka series
- Holders PSG edge through on penalties in French Cup
- Daniels throw five TDs as Commanders down Eagles
- Atalanta fight back to take top spot in Serie A, Roma hit five
- Mancini admits regrets over leaving Italy for Saudi Arabia
- Run machine Ayub shines as Pakistan sweep South Africa
- Slovak PM Fico on surprise visit to Kremlin
- 'Incredible' Liverpool must stay focused: Slot
- Maresca 'absolutely happy' as title-chasing Chelsea drop points in Everton draw
- Salah happy wherever career ends after inspiring Liverpool rout
- Three and easy as Dortmund move into Bundesliga top six
- Liverpool hit Spurs for six, Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth
- Netanyahu vows to act with 'force, determination' against Yemen's Huthis
- Ali hat-trick helps champions Ahly crush Belouizdad
- Salah stars as rampant Liverpool hit Spurs for six
- Syria's new leader says all weapons to come under 'state control'
- 'Sonic 3' zips to top of N.America box office
- Rome's Trevi Fountain reopens to limited crowds
- Mbappe strikes as Real Madrid down Sevilla
- Pope again condemns 'cruelty' of Israeli strikes on Gaza
- Lonely this Christmas: Vendee skippers in low-key celebrations on high seas
- Troubled Man Utd humiliated by Bournemouth
- 2 US pilots shot down over Red Sea in 'friendly fire' incident: military
- Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth, Chelsea held at Everton
- France awaits fourth government of the year
- Death toll in Brazil bus crash rises to 41
- Odermatt stays hot to break Swiss World Cup wins record
- Neville says Rashford's career at Man Utd nearing 'inevitable ending'
- Syria's new leader vows not to negatively interfere in Lebanon
- Germany pledges security inquest after Christmas market attack
- Putin vows 'destruction' on Ukraine after Kazan drone attack
- Understated Usyk seeks recognition among boxing legends
- France awaits appointment of new government
- Cyclone Chido death toll rises to 94 in Mozambique
- Stokes out of England's Champions Trophy squad
- Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 28
- Sweet smell of success for niche perfumes
- 'Finally, we made it!': Ho Chi Minh City celebrates first metro
- Angry questions in Germany after Christmas market attack
- China's Zheng pulls out of season-opening United Cup
- Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh
- Tatum's 43-point triple-double propels Celtics over Bulls
- Tunisia women herb harvesters struggle with drought and heat
- Trump threatens to take back control of Panama Canal
- India's architecture fans guard Mumbai's Art Deco past
- Secretive game developer codes hit 'Balatro' in Canadian prairie province
- Large earthquake hits battered Vanuatu
- Beaten Fury says Usyk got 'Christmas gift' from judges
- First Singaporean golfer at Masters hopes 'not be in awe' of heroes
State of emergency declared in storm-battered California
Excessive rain, heavy snow and landslides are expected to wallop California through Thursday as a series of winter storms rip across the western US coast, prompting the Golden State's governor to declare a state of emergency.
The incoming system is set to deliver yet more rain to already-saturated California, where the National Weather Service (NWS) is warning of coastal flash flooding and mudslides in wildfire-scarred terrain.
The most populous US state has been lashed by atmospheric rivers -- where moisture-laden air is drawn in from the oceans -- which have brought gusty winds to San Francisco, flooding to Sacramento county and snow to the Sierra Nevadas.
"A significant atmospheric river event will affect California through Thursday with heavy to excessive rainfall, flooding with debris flows and landslides near recent burn scar areas, heavy mountain snow and high winds," the NWS said.
Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency on Wednesday and authorized the National Guard to support the disaster response. Local authorities have issued ominous warnings of threats to life and property for a vast stretch of California, focused around San Francisco and Sacramento.
More than 34 million Californians were under a flood watch while the Bay Area National Weather Service told people early Thursday not to travel if they did not need to.
Bars and restaurants were shuttered in San Francisco as the city girded Wednesday for a massive "bomb cyclone" -- a sudden steep drop in air pressure -- with local media showing flooded roads, and reports of long delays on public transport.
In South San Francisco, a gas station canopy collapsed during the storm.
Dozens of flights were cancelled, some schools preemptively scrapped class and around 190,000 customers across the state were without power as of early Thursday, according to the PowerOutage.us website.
Thousands of sandbags were distributed to residents fearful of flooding.
"We're very worried about it," Deepak Srivastava told CBS in San Francisco.
"(I) just spent all day putting sandbags in front of the garage at every entering point and we're just crossing our fingers and hoping we won't have more damage."
City officials said they were working around the clock.
"We've been working very hard to source sandbags from wherever we can in northern California," said Rachel Gordon, of the city's public works department.
But she warned that residents needed to take the storms seriously.
"If you don't have to be out in San Francisco, please don't be out on the roads."
- 'Several storms' -
The storms come after near-record rainfall over recent weeks.
On New Year's Eve, parts of northern California were lashed by a storm that caused landslides and power outages, as levees were breached and roadways were flooded.
At least one person is known to have died after being trapped in a submerged car.
San Francisco recorded almost 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) of rain on December 31, the city's second-wettest day in recorded history.
The waterlogging caused by those previous storms would exacerbate the danger of this one, meteorologist Matt Solum told AFP.
"This storm alone without the previous storms would cause localized flooding concerns and rock slides and mudslide concerns," he said.
"But with the recent wet conditions, a lot of the rainfall that's already fallen has already saturated the ground so any additional rainfall is going to run off instead of soak into the ground."
While it is difficult to draw a straight line to this storm from human-caused climate change, scientists say a warmer planet brings more unstable weather, with more ferocious storms as well as longer, hotter dry periods.
The western United States is in the grip of a decades-long drought, with below-average precipitation leaving river and reservoir levels worryingly low.
Solum said while any rain was helpful in alleviating the drought -- a long-term issue -- these back-to-back storms could be destructive because there was nowhere for the water to go.
"It's just the compounding impact of all the storms is what's going to be the most impactful," he said.
"Typically, we don't see this many series of storms with this much heavy rain."
And there is more to come.
"It's definitely going to continue," he said.
"We are expecting another one over the weekend. And then another several storms potentially for next week. And even possibly the following week as well."
V.Dantas--PC