LOS ANGELES — Saturated mountainsides loomed over foothill communities Saturday as a storm centered off California rotated bands of rain into a state that sorely needs the moisture but not at such dangerously high rates.
Evacuation orders remained in effect for hundreds of homes in Los Angeles County foothill communities where fires had burned away vegetation that holds soil in place. Occasional debris flows came down the mountains.
The storm marked a departure from many months of drought that has grown to crisis proportions for the state’s farming industry. However, such storms would have to become common to make serious inroads against the drought, weather forecasters have said.
Officials warned that despite lengthy lulls, more heavy downpours are expected. They urged residents who left their homes as much as three days earlier to be patient.
“These mountains are now saturated and soaked. We know where the mud’s gonna go. We just don’t know how much and what the intensity is going to be,” Assistant Chief Steve Martin of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said on a webcast news conference.
Forecasters said the upper-level low at the storm’s center would come ashore and move east through the day, dragging rain with it but leaving only showers in California on Sunday — a lucky break for the evening’s Oscar red carpet festivities in Hollywood.
The National Weather Service said the storm is forecast to move east over the Rockies and into the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley through Sunday.
A mixture of sleet and snow in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois will eventually change to all snow — with up to 8 inches forecast for Kansas City and St. Louis area — while northern Arkansas will see freezing rain.
The system will reach the Appalachians and the East Coast on Monday.
The storm broke a 70-day streak without precipitation in the Phoenix area. An 85-day spell of no measureable rainfall in Las Vegas ended Friday. Rain and snow also came to drought-stricken New Mexico.
