california rainfall flood mudslides
© Screenshot/Twitter/AccuWeather/BrandonClement/WxChasingCalifornia suffered extreme amounts of precipitation throughout the state on February 5-6, 2024
A series of utterly absurd videos emerged online Monday through Tuesday morning of the devastating storms plaguing the West Coast.

An enormous "Pineapple Express" atmospheric river struck California on Sunday night, sending extreme amounts of precipitation throughout the state. The impacts are widespread, including floods, mudslides and debris flows.

One video captured in Beverly Hills shows what appears to be several feet of mud, dirt and sludge coating an entire block. Cars were clearly trapped within the deluge, which showed very little signs of stopping.


Extreme meteorologist Reed Timmer shared a series of clips showing the flooding roadways a little further north in Topanga Canyon, which literally turned into rivers as the rainfall pummeled the state.


Economic losses from the storms in California are estimated to be between $9 billion and $11 billion, AccuWeather wrote in another update, along with photographs of crushed cars, destroyed garages and fallen trees.


Many property owners are facing unimaginable costs and time to rebuild in areas where mudslides ripped away foundations, as seen in another drone video shared by AccuWeather. The devastation really is unlike anything we've seen in California for decades, possibly since the last major earthquake.


Power was out for almost 1 million customers in California on Sunday night, but those numbers have dropped to just over 158,000 as of Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutages. Most of the counties affected are either coastal or mountainous and are also battling with snowfall, hurricane-force winds and other impacts from the ongoing onslaught.

Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) shared a harrowing video of a rescue in what appears to be the LA River. A man allegedly jumped into the fast-moving current to save his dog and ended up being lifted by LAFD Air Ops while the dog swam to safety.

University of California Los Angeles recorded nearly 12 inches of rain fell within the 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday, which meteorologist Colin McCarthy called a "1 in 1000-year rainfall event." The National Weather Service issued continued flash flood warnings for much of Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills as of Tuesday morning. It's hoped the rain will stop by late Tuesday so that recovery efforts can commence in full.