hello, everyone. i m alisyn camerota. welcome to cnn newsroom. i m victor blackwell. good to be with you. right now dangerous storms are battering california with relentless rain, deadly flooding. there have been dozens of water rescues, and thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. 34 million people are under flood watches as the storm pushes south. at least 16 people across the state have died in this recent outbreak of storms. in central california a 5-year-old is missing after being swept away in flood waters. a crew suspended the search when the weather became unsafe for the rescue teams. heavy rainfall led to this rock slide in fresno. boulders and debris forced highways across the state to close. firefighters in ventura county rescued a 70-year-old man after rising flood waters trapped him inside his suv. the onslaught of rain is turning streets and creeks into these raging rivers that you see on your screen with some seeing more than a month s w
hello, everyone. i m alisyn camerota. welcome to cnn newsroom. i m victor blackwell. good to be with you. right now dangerous storms are battering california with relentless rain, deadly flooding. there have been dozens of water rescues, and thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. 34 million people are under flood watches as the storm pushes south. at least 16 people across the state have died in this recent outbreak of storms. in central california a 5-year-old is missing after being swept away in flood waters. a crew suspended the search when the weather became unsafe for the rescue teams. heavy rainfall led to this rock slide in fresno. boulders and debris forced highways across the state to close. firefighters in ventura county rescued a 70-year-old man after rising flood waters trapped him inside his suv. the onslaught of rain is turning streets and creeks into these raging rivers that you see on your screen with some seeing
thoroughfares closed completely. public transit shut down. further north, heavy snow and fierce winds creating blizzard conditions in the sierra nevadas, a possible three feet of snow on the horizon. conditions are slowly improving as the storm pushes south. but utility crews still have a lot of work to do at last check. a quarter of a million people still without power on the west coast. chris and alisyn, back to you. they ll be busy this morning, thanks so much. let s figure out why from the meteorological perspective. let s bring in chad myers, what are you looking at with the storm, is getting better or worse? getting better for san francisco, getting worse for l.a., the snow still coming down. dan said a quarter million people without power, 300,000 people already restored. petrified forest had over a foot of rain. lake sonoma, 7.5 inches. look when you go up in
just got to roll with the punches. it will be fine. reporter: months and months worst in one night. dan simon joining us from san francisco. what s it like in store for tonight? reporter: hey, john. it s still coming down pretty hard and expected to be this way throughout the night with conditions slowly improving tomorrow as the storm pushes south. you re going to start seeing some moisture in the los angeles area, so they re in for a drenching. the key for this area is clearing the roadways and getting the power restored. utility crews are going to be working around the clock to try to make that happen. the bottom line is it could be a couple of days before things return back to normal, john. what a mess. dan simon, thank you so much. now something almost never happens. the cia director holding a news conference taking questions from reporters. he took questions whether he answered them, we leave it to you to decide. the cia is not as you might