Seventeen people have died in a series of atmospheric rivers that have slammed into California in the last two weeks, a staggering death toll in a state used to wildfires, earthquakes and drought, a state official said Tuesday.
The deaths have been reported across the state — from San Bernardino County in the south to Mendocino County in the north, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
A spokesperson for the agency, Brian Ferguson, said two kinds of death have been most prevalent — those resulting from trees’ falling on people and vehicles’ getting overwhelmed by floodwater.
