Three killed as torrential rains and flash flooding batter California
LOS ANGELES — California braced for further downpours and high winds after a series of powerful Pacific storms drenched the state, unleashing flash floods, mud and debris flows, and prompting emergency declarations from Los Angeles County to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Fueled by an atmospheric river known as the Pineapple Express — a plume that channels deep tropical moisture from near Hawaii to the U.S. West Coast — the storms were forecast to drop roughly a month’s worth of rain on parts of the state, according to the…