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California firefighters rescue people trapped in cars as floodwater swamps roads amid historic rainfall

While it's raining again in California after months of drought, the weather has caused major problems in some areas

TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA: California is being battered by the heaviest rains in nearly two centuries, and San Francisco experienced one of the wettest days since 1849. Now, video has surfaced showing brave California firefighters rescuing a family of five trapped in a car engulfed by floodwaters during the winter storm.

Dramatic footage released by the Orange County Fire Authority shows a desperate group of five people fighting for their lives while surrounded by floodwaters on Saturday, December 31. In the video, personnel from the City of Tustin Fire Department and Orange County Fire Authority can be seen rowing to the stranded vehicles in a rescue boat. One adult appears to be sitting on top of the car, while four adults are in the car, which was waiting at an exit to Highway 55.

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Fortunately, the California rescuers were able to pull out all five passengers safely onto their boat from the scene in Tustin. Four of the individuals were transported to their nearby home by an ambulance, reported the source. "OCFA technical rescue truck FF's rowed a rescue boat out to bring 3 of them to safety after 2 walked out on their own. All 5 were assessed by FFPM's & were uninjured," the Orange County Fire Authority said in a tweet. Orange County officials thanked California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Transportation for their help in assistance. 

San Francisco recorded the second heaviest rainfall after measuring 5.46 inches of rain. "This makes it the second wettest day in the 170+ years of records at that site, just 0.08' less than 1st place (11/5/1994) with 5.54," the National Weather Service said, according to the source. While rains in Southern California come after months of drought-like conditions, the weather has stored major issues statewide, specifically in Northern California. More than 179,000 homes in California were knocked out of power as of Sunday morning, reported poweroutage.us. "We are in for an extended wet pattern where these saturated soils won't have time to really dry out," the National Weather Service said. "The only break we get from rain will happen on Jan 1, but then more rain occur Jan 2-5 with a third moderate atmospheric river moving into our region around Jan 4-5."