For a state that has gone for years with a drought this past Wednesday in northern California, 34 million Californians have put on a flood watch as of Jan. 9.

That is about 90 percent of the state’s population and 10 percent of the countries. The central coast is currently slammed with about 1 to 1.25 inches of rain each hour. That much rainfall has created mudslides,severe flooding and debris that has accumulated in the water raveging through the streets of California. On Monday, the rain and floods from the coast shifted to the streets of Los Angeles which is home to nearly 7 million people.

The local authorities warned the people of Los Angeles to expect power outages and warned them to try not to drive in this storm. By Monday evening close to 92,000 people in their homes and businesses were left without electricity making more people evacuate their area. The mix of gale force winds and this much rain all at once is putting the coast of California at risk of a tornado warning coming their way.

With California’s past historic drought and severe wildfires their land cannot soak up much rainfall and this is not the end of it. Two bouts of significant rainfall is expected to slam the west coast in the following days. Rivers across the state have risen and caused even more flooding in their areas. State officials are warning and urging people to evacuate their homes if they are in an imminent flood zone. Flooding can kill more people than any other natural disaster according to statistics.

From the start of this storm in late December till now 17 people have already tragically died from these floods and the authorities warn and inform the natives living the areas to leave now so the death toll does not rise anymore.