What is the Pineapple Express? Here's when and where 'catastrophic' bomb cyclone will hit
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: San Francisco which was recently battered by severe flooding and mudslides is preparing for another disastrous storm that will be the "most impactful" yet. As the Pineapple Express, a powerful atmospheric storm developing in the Pacific Northwest approaches California, the state is still recovering from the storm that hit on New Year's Eve.
From Wisconsin to California, fifteen million people are getting ready for the impending storm that is anticipated to arrive on January 4. “This will likely be one of the most impactful systems on a widespread scale that this meteorologist has seen in a long while,” the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office said. “This is truly a brutal system that we are looking at and needs to be taken seriously. The impacts will include widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, trees down (potentially full groves), widespread power outages, immediate disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life.” The Bay Area is currently under a flood warning that will last until 4 pm on Thursday, January 5, as the enormous storm moves toward the West Coast.
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However, the majority of the bomb cyclone will occur in the ocean's midsection. “In this case, this one is going to bomb out over the open ocean,” Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Although the majority of the storm's activity occurred 500 miles offshore, San Francisco might be severely affected given that the city already had severe floods over the weekend, almost 20,000 Californians remain without power and two people lost their lives. The drought-stricken California was drenched by rain over the holiday weekend, according to the San Francisco Fire Department which reported receiving "double" the usual number of calls. “The San Francisco Fire Department received almost 800 calls for service in a 24-hour period during this last storm - that's about twice of what we normally receive,” Chief Jeanine Nicholson said at a press conference on January 2. Although she said that the department is “prepared for a disaster.”
“It's what we do, but we could really use the public's help,” she said. “Please stay home, and please have your flashlights [ready] and if you have generators, have fuel in them to be able to take care of yourselves and your family and not have to go out in this and then have to call 911.” Additionally, she suggested that people only use 911 in "life-threatening emergencies" and contact 311 for any other issues. “We still have to run all our critical 911 calls, whether that's a cardiac arrest or a car accident or a fire. And if you add all the flooding issues that we've had earlier this week, it can really overtax the system,” the chief said at a press conference. “So again, if you have a little bit of flooding in your home, call 311. If someone is having a heart attack, if someone is being swept away by water, call 911.” London Breed, the mayor of the city, who faced harsh criticism for her "woke" policies last year, also referred to the weekend's heavy rains and flooding as "unprecedented," adding that people have already received more than 8500 sandbags. Two to three additional inches of rain are expected in San Francisco and there may be 50 mph wind gusts as well. “I just want to say to the public, please use 911 wisely. We will have a lot of emergencies to respond too,” Breed said as per Daily Mail. "We want to make sure that 911 is used as a life or death tool only.”