Los Angeles

• 85,000 households and businesses were without power in Los Angeles.
• The main highway leading north out of the city remained closed.
• San Francisco was anticipated to have record-low temperatures on Saturday.

Nearly 85,000 households and businesses were without power in the Los Angeles area on Saturday, as storms continued to pummel parts of California, bringing snow to higher elevations and dumping rain and hail in the flatlands.

The California Department of Transportation reported that Interstate 5, the main highway leading north out of the city, remained closed at the steep grade known as the Grapevine due to heavy snow, while several other southern points of the motorway in and around Los Angeles were closed due to flooding.

In Northern California, San Francisco was anticipated to have record-low temperatures on Saturday, while the National Weather Service cautioned residents of Sacramento to avoid travel from Sunday to Wednesday when rain and snow returned following a brief respite on Saturday.

“Extreme impacts from heavy snow & winds will cause extremely dangerous to impossible driving conditions & likely widespread road closures & infrastructure impacts!” the agency said on Twitter.

Wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour (80 kph) are forecast in the Sacramento Valley on Sunday and up to 70 miles per hour in the neighboring Sierra Nevada mountains. Due to extreme winter weather, Yosemite National Park was closed until Wednesday.

According to Bryan Jackson, a forecaster at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, the exceptional conditions were caused by a large low-pressure system driven from the Arctic.

In Southern California, “this is a rare case of a cold, significant storm event,” Jackson said.

Snowflakes even fell around the Hollywood sign atop Mount Lee in the hills above the city, which is famed for its bright days and palm trees, which must have pleased many Angelenos on Friday.

The National Weather Service predicted scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms on Saturday, bringing rain, hail, and a mixture of snow and moisture known as “graupel” to the area.

A different storm that hit the Plains, Midwest, and Great Lakes earlier this week blasted out to the Atlantic on Friday after passing over New England, according to the weather service. According to Detroit News, more than 400,000 DTE Energy (DTE.N) customers were still without power on Saturday.

Even before the latest storm, much of California had experienced an unusually rainy, chilly winter, starting with a spate of deadly “atmospheric river” storms that unleashed widespread flooding, felled trees, and triggered mudslides in a state long plagued by drought and wildfires.

[embedpost slug=”/californian-breaks-the-guinness-world-record-after-nearly-3000-visits-to-disneyland/”]

Read more

• The gunman called his mother before shooting himself dead.
• Police received a 911 emergency call hours later from a woman.
• Murdered made several incriminating statements.

LOS ANGELES — A gunman who killed three people in what US police described as a random attack called his mother before shooting himself dead in the state of Washington on Tuesday.

The upsetting incident came on the heels of two mass shootings in California that left 18 people dead, as the United States grapples with the horror of spiraling gun violence once more.

Yakima police say a man identified as 21-year-old Yakima resident Jarid Haddock shot people in and around a convenience store overnight before fleeing.

Officers conducted a massive manhunt throughout the 100,000-person city, which is located 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Seattle, warning that the wanted man was armed and dangerous.

“It appears to be a random situation,” Yakima Police Chief Matthew Murray said.

“There was no apparent conflict between the parties. They just walked in and started shooting.”

Police received a 911 emergency call hours later from a woman who claimed the wanted man had borrowed her phone.

“He then called his mother and made several incriminating statements, including, ‘I killed those people,'” Murray said.

“He made several statements in front of her that he was going to commit suicide.”

First responders rushed to the scene near a supermarket, just in time to hear gunshots as he committed suicide.

“They provided medical care and attempted to save his life, but he was later pronounced dead.”

The shooting in Yakima was the latest spasm of gun violence to shake the United States.

On Monday, seven people died at two agricultural sites south of San Francisco when a Chinese-American farmworker is believed to have opened fire on his colleagues.

[embedpost slug=”/3-killed-suspect-dead-in-early-shooting-at-convenience-store-in-washington/”]

Read more