Arizona

Record-setting storm heading into Arizona after flooding many parts of Southern California

Published

2 years ago

February 6, 2024

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A storm of historic proportions dumped a record amount of rain over parts of Los Angeles on Monday, sending mud and boulders down hillsides dotted with multimillion-dollar homes while people living in homeless encampments in many parts of the city scrambled for safety.

About 710,000 people statewide were without power Monday evening.

The storm was the second one fueled by an atmospheric river to hit the state over the span of days.

Virtually all of Southern California was under flash flood advisories and watches, including the Los Angeles area, where between 5 and 10 inches (12.7 to 25.4 centimeters) of rain had fallen, and more was expected, according to the National Weather Service. At the downtown measuring station, 6.7 inches of rain had fallen by Monday afternoon, nearly half the yearly average of 14.25 inches. It was already the third-wettest two-day period since 1877, the service said.

So far, officials have attributed three deaths to the storm that first hit Northern California. Authorities said that crews rescued people from swift-moving water in various parts of Southern California on Monday, including 16 people and five cats in Los Angeles County alone.

Also rescued were two homeless people who spent the night on a small island in the Santa Ana River in San Bernardino, about 55 miles (88.51 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, authorities said.

“They were cold and exhausted from a night out stranded on this little patch of dirt that was in the middle of the river,” said Capt—Nathan Lopez of the San Bernardino County Fire Department. A dog and two cats were also saved.

At a news conference, authorities said rain would taper off in intensity on Tuesday, but the threat of flooding remained high.

“The ground is extremely saturated, supersaturated,” said Ariel Cohen, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service bureau in Los Angeles. “It’s not able to hold any additional water before sliding. It’s not going to take much rain for additional landslides, mudslides, rockslides, and other debris flows to occur.”

Near the Hollywood Hills, floodwaters carried mud, rocks, and household objects downhill through Studio City, damaging at least two homes, city officials said. Sixteen people were evacuated.

“It looks like a river that’s been here for years,” said Keki Mingus, whose neighbors’ homes were damaged. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The Los Angeles Fire Department said 1,000 firefighters were contending with 49 debris flows, 130 reports of flooding, half a dozen structure fires, and several rescues of motorists stranded in vehicles.

Drake Livingston, who lives in the Beverly Crest neighborhood, was watching a movie around midnight when a friend alerted him of flooding.

“We looked outside, and there’s a foot-and-a-half of running water, and it starts seeping through the doors,” said Livingston, whose car was found submerged in several feet of mud in the morning.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass urged residents to avoid driving and warned them of fallen trees and electrical lines on flooded roadways.

Shelters were adding beds for the city’s homeless population of nearly 75,000 people.

Tony Sanz spent the night in a city park before seeking higher ground around dawn as floodwaters surrounded his tent.

“Boy, did it rain last night,” he said Monday afternoon, hunkered down in a tent layered with tarps on a sidewalk outside a supermarket. He spied the cloudy skies during a break in the downpours and wondered, “Is that it? I hope that’s it.”

Not yet, according to forecasters.

The weather service predicts up to 8 inches of rainfall across Southern California’s coastal and valley areas, with 14 inches (35 centimeters) possible in the foothills and mountains over the next two days.

Authorities also reported several spills Monday, including the discharge of about 5 million gallons of raw sewage in the Rancho Dominguez area surrounding Compton. Most of the untreated sewage went into a channel leading to the Pacific Ocean, and the city closed a 7-mile stretch of Long Beach to recreational swimming,

Earlier in the day, commuters stepped through several inches of floodwater as they rushed to catch trains at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Most Los Angeles public schools remained open, but some districts were closed. The weather also prompted the closure of Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and SeaWorld San Diego theme parks, along with a rare early closure of Disneyland.

Over the weekend, the storm inundated streets, brought down trees, and prompted water rescues in the San Francisco Bay area.

Among those who died were two men killed by fallen trees Sunday in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento, and in Boulder Creek in Santa Cruz County. Police were investigating the death of another man in Yuba City, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, who was found under a redwood tree in his backyard Sunday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for most of coastal Southern California, while emergency shelters were opened.

Off the coast of Long Beach, 19 people were rescued Sunday after the 40-foot sailboat they were traveling in lost its mast amid gale-force winds, said Brian Fisk of the Long Beach Fire Department.

Heavy snow was falling throughout the Sierra Nevada, and motorists were urged to avoid mountain roads.

Much of the state was still drying out from the initial atmospheric river-powered storm that blew in last week. Atmospheric rivers are relatively narrow plumes of moisture that form over an ocean and can produce torrential amounts of rain as they move over land.

Both atmospheric rivers are called a “Pineapple Express” because they originated near Hawaii.

Since last winter, 46 atmospheric rivers have made landfall on the U.S. West Coast, pulling the state out of a yearslong drought, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. Nine were categorized as strong, two were extreme, and one was exceptional.

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Arizona

Fruit-flavored cocaine being sold to young people, Arizona official warns

Published

12 hours ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Fruit-flavored cocaine being sold to young people, Arizona official warns

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizona’s attorney general is sounding the alarm over a new illegal drug being marketed toward kids and young women.

The Attorney General’s Office says law enforcement agencies in Arizona are seeing an increase of fruit-flavored cocaine in the illegal drug market.

Attorney General Kris Mayes says dealers are marketing the flavored drug toward younger people and women, attempting to lure new users to using cocaine.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is issuing a warning of fruit-flavored cocaine being marketed to young people.(Arizona Attorney General’s Office)

Mayes said the drug is being sold in flavors like piña colada, strawberry, coconut and banana, which may appeal to children. She added that illegal drugs like cocaine often contain the deadly drug fentanyl.

“We want everyone to stay safe and avoid the harms that come from using illegal drugs,” Mayes said.

The warning from the AG’s office comes after a man was sentenced in Pima County last month for selling fruit-flavored cocaine.

A release from Mayes’ office says that on July 17, Jaden Alfredo Covarrubias sold about 1.55 pounds of cocaine to another person after advertising his access to coconut, strawberry and banana flavored forms. Mayes said Covarrubias offered to sell the drugs on social media platforms like WhatsApp.

Jaden Alfredo Covarrubias was setenced to 1.75 years in prison and ordered to pay fines after... — Jaden Alfredo Covarrubias was setenced to 1.75 years in prison and ordered to pay fines after selling fruit-flavored cocaine in Pima County.(Arizona Attorney General’s Office)

Covarrubias was sentenced on Nov. 24 to 1.75 years in prison. He was ordered to pay $4,500 to the State Anti-Racketeering Revolving Fund and $300 for investigative costs to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

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Arizona

Volunteer pilots bring Santa, gifts to Title I schools on Utah-Arizona border

Published

24 hours ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Volunteer pilots bring Santa, gifts to Title I schools on Utah-Arizona border

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Santa Claus traded his sleigh for small planes Wednesday as 20 volunteer pilots from Angel Flight West’s Utah wing flew hundreds of miles to deliver Christmas gifts and school supplies to two Title I schools on the Utah-Arizona border.

The annual “Santa Flight” brought toys, winter coats, backpacks and more than 500 books donated by PBS Utah to about 500 students from Water Canyon Elementary in Hildale, Utah, and Cottonwood Elementary in Colorado City, Arizona. The schools gathered at the Colorado City airport to greet Santa, Mrs. Claus, some elves and the pilots.

“Well, this is just excitement,” said Brad Jolley, principal at Water Canyon Elementary in Hildale. “I mean, you look at the faces of the kids, you see smiles, and just a great opportunity, great atmosphere.”

“This is the first time that our two schools in our valley have come together and done an activity,” said Natalie Hammon, principal at Cottonwood Elementary in Colorado City. “So Santa Flight has really helped us unite our valley and let our two schools work together for a great cause.”

The donations were made possible by community groups and sponsors, including the John C. Kish Foundation, Bank of Utah and the Leavitt Group. Lou Rossi, Utah Wing leader for Angel Flight West, said the effort reflects the generosity of pilots and donors during a tough economic time.

Angel Flight West is best known for providing free air transportation for patients traveling long distances for medical care. Volunteer pilot Steve Booth said the holiday mission is just one way to give back.

“For somebody that might need a four- or five-hour car ride after a cancer treatment, a 45 (-minute) or one-hour flight just makes a huge, huge difference in their life,” Booth said.

The Santa Flight tradition began in 2000 and rotates among rural schools each year.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Arizona

Arizona State men’s basketball cruises past NAU for 8th win

Published

2 days ago

December 10, 2025

Press Room

Arizona State men’s basketball cruises past NAU for 8th win

The Arizona State Sun Devils were looking to improve on the win they chalked up three days ago against Oklahoma. They did, sort of.

ASU added a 73-48 win over visiting Northern Arizona on Dec. 9 at Desert Financial Arena for its fifth win in the last six outings.

Defense has been the team’s focus in the last two weeks, and that showed as the Sun Devils (8-2) held their opponent to a season-low point total. Coach Bobby Hurley said the team’s goal was to hold the Lumberjacks (4-5) to under 49 points. Mission accomplished there.

ASU shot 50% 26-for-52) for the game, with an even split, 15-for-30 in the first and 11-for-22 in the second half. NAU shot 33.3% (17-for-51), which included a 5-for-26 from long distance.

What went right

Got scoring punch from the bench: ASU is 8-0 when getting more points from its bench than the opponent, and 0-2 when it does not. In this one, it wasn’t even close as the Sun Devils had a significant advantage here, 33-3. Allen Mukeba had 10, Anthony “Pig” Johnson nine, and Marcus Adams 8.

Rebounded better: This is an area where the Sun Devils have made noticeable strides in the last two games, and this was an opponent ASU should have bested on the board because it was one of the few where they have had a size advantage. The Sun Devils won the battle 41-15, with a 10-4 edge on the offensive glass and a 31-21 advantage on the defensive boards. Santiago Trout had eight, with Mukeba, Andrija Grbovic, and Massamba Diop each collecting six.

Used inside presence: The 7-0 freshman Diop had a career-high 19 points on an 8-for-10 showing from the field. Hurley said his team didn’t go to him enough

What went wrong

A few too many turnovers: ASU had 13, which is too many against a .500 foe. NAU had 10 steals, and it wasn’t exactly pressuring the ball. It was the area in which Hurley was most disappointed. Diop had four. The Sun Devils were fortunate NAU only manufactured 12 points off those turnovers. NAU also had 13 turnovers, and ASU scored 23 points off those.

A bit sluggish in the first half: ASU ended the first half up 35-26. It was up 11-2, then faltered a bit, and the Lumberjacks actually went ahead 14-13 with 10:40 left in the half.

Personnel notes

ASU has used the same starting lineup for all 10 games this season. A total of 10 athletes entered the game and all of them scored. The last person to score was Moe Odum, who came in averaging 18.9 points per game. His only two points came at the line with 30 seconds left.

Up next

The Sun Devils are back on the road for another neutral site game, the fifth of the season. ASU will square off with Santa Clara (8-2) in the Jack Jones Hoop Hall Classic at 5 p.m. on Dec. 13 at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada. ASU is 3-1 in neutral-site games while the Broncos are 1-1.

The teams played last season with ASU prevailing 81-74.

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