Pounding West Coast storm causes two deaths

SAN FRANCISCO — A ferocious storm system pounded a huge swath of the West Coast with heavy rain, hurricane-force winds and power outages Thursday, causing at least two deaths.

In some parts of northern California, the storm produced hurricane-force winds of 78 mph and one gust of 147 mph in the Sierra.

There were flash flood warnings in several parts of the Bay Area, and portions of major highways were closed due to flooding. More than 4.5 inches of rain fell on Big Sur in just three hours, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm is one of the strongest to hit the West Coast in years.

OREGON DEATHS

Authorities in Southern Oregon say high winds toppled a tree atop a 40-year-old homeless man sleeping in a tent along the Pacific Coast Trail. The Jackson County sheriff's office said the man, Phillip Crosby, complained of difficulty breathing and died shortly afterward, the Medford Mail Tribune reports.

Also, a teen died of storm-related injuries Thursday evening in the Portland, Ore. area after avery large tree fell onto the vehicle, apparently causing the woman who was in the car with him to swerve into another tree.

The teenage boy was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was was seriously injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

CABLE CARS HALTED

Power in San Francisco's Financial District, in the heart of the city, went out shortly after 7 a.m. PT, forcing the evacuation of thousands of workers from skyscrapers over several blocks. The iconic Bank of America -- the architectural star of the Towering Inferno movie in 1974, was darkened.

Muni buses were abandoned on city streets, inoperable and clogging lanes, because they had no power.

Traffic was worse on Highway 280, the scenic stretch of road that connects San Francisco to San Jose. Flooding and stalled cars created gridlock for miles on the southbound side. Highway workers feverishly tried to sweep off chunks of mud that had made their way in the extreme left lanes, snarling traffic.

Every 15 minutes or so a National Weather Service warning interrupted radio reports with its klaxon. The message warned residents not to try to drive across flooded roadways with the tag line, "Turn around, don't drown."

Truckers using the highly exposed Richmond-San Rafael Bridge — which stretches across the northern end of San Francisco Bay — were advised to avoid the structure because of high winds.

Pacific Electric & Gas Co. crews were working to restore power for nearly a quarter million people on Thursday afternoon.

In the city, electricity was knocked out from the Marina to the financial district and beyond. The outages stretched over thousands of square miles, from near the Oregon border to Big Sur on California's Central Coast.

San Francisco's cable car system was shut down before the storm hit because of concern over the effectiveness of brakes on the aging cars in wet conditions.

Bay Area Rapid Transit closed its Montgomery Station in the city because of flooding. Trains were running through the station without stopping.

Because of the high winds, the operator of the Golden Gate Bridge created a buffer zone to prevent head-on collisions by swerving cars.

The suspension bridge is engineered to swing in cross winds, and engineers were standing by, but "the concern we have right now is more about vehicles," spokeswoman Priya David Clemens said.

Some residents scrambled for flashlights and bottled water while others at lower levels shored up vulnerable homes and businesses with sand bags. Many schools in Northern California were canceled as the first elements of the storm began to push down from Washington and Oregon.

Barbara Maley and her son, Jack Nelson, age 12, were driving to school when they got the alert from Burlingame School District that classes were cancelled.

While Oakland, Marin and San Francisco public schools had notified parents and students on Wednesday they planned to close, school districts in the San Francisco peninsula waited until the storm hit Thursday morning.

Maley said she and Jack got hot chocolate and then headed to Burlingame Public Library, where they were picking up a stack of books. "This is the best day ever," said Jack.

At San Francisco International Airport, more than 225 flights were canceled as of late Thursday morning, according to Flightaware.com. .

The powerful storm system, which is expected to batter California with drenching rain, heavy snow, pounding surf and howling winds through Friday, is fueled by the "Pineapple Express" that is delivering a steady stream of moisture directly from Hawaii to the West Coast.

Winds were howling across a wide swath of Northern California, including winds sustained at 78 mph near Lake Tahoe, which is hurricane force. The highest gust recorded so far was 147 mph recorded near Lake Tahoe, according to the National Weather Service. Many spots in the mountains were gusting to over 100 mph.

In Sonoma County, officials recommended that some residents near the Russian River voluntarily evacuate their homes. The California Nevada River Center is predicting peak flooding could occur in the area Friday morning.

The highest rainfall total by early Thursday was 7 inches in one spot north of San Francisco.

As the storm spreads south, downpours are likely to cause debris slides, especially in areas affected by this year's intense and widespread wildfires.

As much as 8 inches of rain could fall on coastal mountains over a 24-hour period, the weather service said. Ski resorts in the northern Sierra Nevada could get more than 2 feet of snow, with wind gusts of up to 70 mph or higher expected on some mountain tops.

"It's a short amount of time for that amount of water," forecaster Diana Henderson said.

TRAPPED BY WATER, FELLED TREES

The storm also has caused some harrowing moments.

In Berkeley, Soufiane Bendaoud, 47, said he was waiting to get his car serviced Thursday morning when he saw a couple drive onto a partially flooded on-ramp to I-80.

By the time first responders arrived, the water had reached close to the top of the car. The couple was rescued by a paramedic using a surfboard to paddle towards the two.

"They were lucky to get out alive," he said.

In Santa Cruz, about an hour south of San Francisco, an elementary school student was trapped for about 15 minutes when an 80-foot tree fell on him, pinning his arm and shoulder until rescuers with chain saws cut it apart. He was taken to a hospital in good condition but likely a fractured arm, officials said.

Significant rainfall will spread southward and inland, reaching into the heavy agricultural areas of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, says AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

The intense rain from this storm still won't end the region's drought, although it will be a major step in the right direction, Sosnowski said.

The storm is expected to dump enough snow on California's mountains that the state's snowpack — currently only 35% of average for this time of year — could be at 75% or higher by this weekend.

The downpour also generated a storm of sorts on Twitter -- with nearly 80,000 tweets about #hellastorm, #bayareastorm and #stormageddon. Earlier this week, Britain's weather woes -- dubbed #weatherbomb -- racked up more than 30,000 tweets, according to Twitter. ​

Contributing: Associated Press, Laura Mandaro, Jon Swartz, Aamer Madhani and Sara Roth for USA TODAY

Follow Doug Stanglin and USA TODAY Weather on Twitter