"Victims of California's Weather Hope for a Break"

LIANE HANSEN, host:

Out west, more bad weather is headed toward California on the heels of winter storms that have already pummeled the state. Blackouts, blizzards and floods have stretched across California and into neighboring Nevada.

But the worst may be over as Brook Binkowski of member station KPCC reports.

BROOK BINKOWSKI: In Northern California, 20-foot wave pounded San Francisco's beaches. In the Sierras, a blizzard dropped five feet of snow on the mountains, which were also buffeted by hurricane forest winds. And in Southern California, 10 inches of rain dropped in some areas as authorities worried about mudslides in places that have been stripped bare by last fall's wildfires. The problems stretched in to Nevada where a levee burst near Fernley, flooding the town and temporarily trapping 3,500 people who then had to be evacuated.

Now, more rain, wind and snow are rolling in to wallop the West Coast. Max Mady(ph) is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service post in San Diego. He says, so far, Southern California has gotten off easy.

Mr. MAX MADY (National Weather Service): Looking at the state of California, this was a huge storm. We did not see the worst of the storm here in Southern California. We got our fair share of heavy weather. But farther to the North, they got it much worse than we did up there with very, very heavy snow; very, very strong winds. Down here, we got quite a bit of rain. The preparation though was in place and the damage reports came in were few and far between.

BINKOWSKI: In hard hit Northern California, hundreds of thousands of homes are still waiting to get their power back, but Mady said the worst of the weather had passed and things should be getting back to normal by Tuesday.

For NPR News, Brook Binkowski reporting from San Diego.