A rapidly intensifying bomb cyclone has battered the West Coast, killing at least two people near Seattle and knocking out power to more than 555,000 customers across Oregon, Washington and Northern California.
The two deaths occurred in the Seattle area after trees were brought down by hurricane-force winds — the city's worst outage event since 2006. The National Weather Service warned of "life-threatening" flooding in Northern California as an atmospheric river, rated 4 out of 5 on the Scripps severity scale, dumped 12 to 16-plus inches of rain.
Gusts reached 94 mph in the Eureka highlands and 101 mph just off Vancouver, while the NWS issued a rare "high" flood-risk outlook for parts of the region.
A second low-pressure system is pinwheeling in a Fujiwhara interaction with the main storm, extending the heavy-rain threat into Friday — a one-two punch forecasters say could prolong flooding and mudslide risks well into the weekend.
