The storm moves into the Golden State on Wednesday, with the heaviest rain falling on Thursday and Friday.
Some areas could see as much as 5 to 10 inches of rain while the Sierra Nevada mountain range could see 5 to 8 feet of snow.
A flood watch is in effect from the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles.
The biggest concern for mudslides and landslides will be on the burn scar areas from last month’s devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles. These burn scar spots could see 3 to 5 inches of rain over the next three days.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city is preparing by clearing catch basins of fire debris; offering residents over 6,500 sandbags; setting up over 7,500 feet of concrete barriers; and having systems in place to capture polluted runoff.
Sheriff’s deputies “are helping residents prepare with sandbags and passing out mud and debris safety tips,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference Wednesday. “Our homeless outreach teams … are actively notifying individuals living in flood-prone areas like the LA River, Coyote Creek and other key waterways, urging them to relocate.”
The sheriff urged residents to prepare now in the event evacuation orders are issued.
“Unfortunately, we’ve witnessed numerous, numerous instances in the past of swift-water rescues where people were caught in dangerous, fast-moving water, and obviously, we want to prevent that,” he said.
“Nothing that you have back home is worth your life. If you decide to stay in your property in an evacuated area, debris from the burn scar areas and storm may impede roads, and we may not be able to reach you,” he warned.
Landslides from burn scars could be a threat in the region for years to come.
Post-wildfire landslides can exert great loads on objects in their paths, strip vegetation, block drainage ways, damage structures and endanger human life, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Additionally, wildfires could destabilize pre-existing, deep-seated landslides over long periods. Flows generated over longer periods could be accompanied by root decay and loss of soil strength, according to the USGS.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday began laying off more than 6,000 new and newly promoted employees across the country, sources familiar with the planning told ABC News, as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to shrink the federal workforce that could have potential consequences for the current tax filing season.
The layoffs, impacting roughly 6%-7% of the agency’s 100,000-person workforce, began midday Thursday primarily outside the Washington, D.C., area, with thousands of employees facing layoffs at offices in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, New York, and beyond, sources told ABC News.
As of Thursday morning, over 500 terminations were expected in Texas; over 600 in New York; over 400 in Georgia; and over 300 in each Florida, Tennessee, and Philadelphia, one source said.
Layoffs could continue into Friday at some IRS offices around the country if weather conditions prevent managers and employees from getting to work, according to an email sent to managers of probationary employees and obtained by ABC News.
The layoffs arrive in the middle of tax season as millions of Americans are filing their returns and hoping for timely refunds — but the exact impact on filing season is not yet clear.
Teams within the IRS being impacted by the layoffs include members of the small business/self-employed unit and clerks in various units, sources told ABC News.
Also impacted are members of the appeals team, whose role is to “resolve disputes, without litigation” with taxpayers, according to the IRS website, as well as employees with the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS that helps to “protect taxpayer rights” and advocate for taxpayers who have issues with the IRS or are experiencing financial hardship.
Ahead of the layoffs, the IRS combed through an initial list of approximately 15,000 probationary employees to try to ensure that no one being laid off this week plays a “direct” role in filing season, sources said. But there are still widespread concerns within the IRS that the firings could ultimately cause delays:
One former IRS commissioner told ABC News it’s “unrealistic” to think firings could occur during filing season and that the process would still run entirely smoothly.
“The bottom line: Forever, it has been an absolute rule of thumb that you keep things stable during filing season. Because it’s delicate,” the former commissioner said. “And the idea that nearly 10% of the entire IRS workforce is being laid off right in the middle of filing season is extremely risky.”
The former commissioner said filing season is like an assembly line with incoming and outgoing products: there are incoming tax forms and correspondence, and outgoing credits, refunds, and balance-due notices.
“There are layers of indirect support that go into that — that could be technology, other types of logistics, supply chains. If you lose that capacity, it will diminish productivity,” the former commissioner said. “Filing season is all hands on deck. Something could break down. You could need to surge resources to one area of service. Things don’t always go as planned at the assembly line.”
“We can expect Americans to experience a return to slower refunds, to longer waits on hold, to dropped calls,” Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said on a call with reporters Thursday. “It’s going to be a real impact on customer service right as taxes are due this year.”
One probationary worker expecting to be fired told ABC News that “termination of probationary employees could prolong audits.”
Another agency official said morale at the IRS is “low” and that they expected remaining workers to “protest internally in ways that could impact filing season.”
On Thursday morning, a union representing IRS employees distributed a letter to members with instructions on what to do if they receive a termination letter.
“Print out everything in your Employee Personnel File that verifies when you started your job,” the email said. “Print last three paystubs and W-2. Print your annual appraisal. Keep your printed copies at home.”
An IRS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Sources told ABC News that they expect further layoffs after tax season, and senior Trump administration officials have said that Trump wants to dismantle the tax-collecting agency entirely, which would require congressional approval.
“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News Wednesday night, referencing Trump’s proposal to create an “External Revenue Agency” to collect tariffs on foreign imports.
Experts say that abolishing the IRS would be extraordinarily difficult, and that it’s the sole government agency that collects the taxpayer money Trump is using to pay for his priorities, including border enforcement.
The IRS also would have to oversee any repayments to taxpayers envisioned by Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk, who recently floated the idea that Americans should receive a percentage of savings from the widespread government cuts.
“I love it. A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we’re saving by going after the waste, fraud and abuse and all of the other things that are happening,” Trump said this week. “I think it’s a great idea.”
The cuts come two years after the IRS received tens of billions of dollars in funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which the agency said helped it hire more customer service representatives — thereby cutting in half the average time needed to process taxpayer correspondence from 7 months to 3.5 months.
At the end of fiscal year 2024, the IRS employed a total of 100,433 people — including accountants, managers, lawyers and other staff — which was up from about 90,000 the year before.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.
(NEW ORLEANS) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to travel on Monday to New Orleans, where they’ll attend a prayer service for families of victims and impacted community members following the New Year’s Day attack in the city.
The Biden are expected to arrive in New Orleans in the afternoon, touching down a few hours before the prayer service, which is to be hosted by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, according to the White House.
The visit comes days after a suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, an Army veteran and Houston realtor, allegedly drove a rented truck into Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day. At least 14 people were killed and dozens were injured in the attack, which occurred over a three-block stretch of of the tourist destination in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter.
Jabbar, a Texas resident who FBI officials said proclaimed his support for the terror group ISIS in social media posts ahead of the attack, was killed in gunfire exchanged with New Orleans police.
The 14 victims who died included a young mother teaching her son to read, a former college football player “on top of the world” living in New York City and an 18-year-old aspiring nurse.
The prayer service the Bidens are set to attend on Monday is scheduled to begin at about 6 p.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, according to the White House and the Archdiocese.
“Archbishop [Gregory Michael] Aymond continues to offer his prayers and condolences to those affected by this tragedy,” the Archdiocese said in its announcement. “He asks that all join in prayer for our community today and every day as we work to build a culture that respects the life and dignity of all people.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Wildfires are tearing through thousands of acres in Los Angeles County in California, as strong Santa Ana winds stoke the blazes.
The Palisades Fire has impacted more than 2,920 acres, the Eaton Fire has impacted more than 2,200 acres, and the Hurst Fire has spread over more than 500 acres.
Each of the fires is 0% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire.
Evacuation alerts
Evacuation orders from CalFire have been issued in the areas surrounding the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires.
Orders to evacuate in the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and eastern Malibu region reach to the Carbon Beach Terrace on the west side of the blaze. To the east and southeast, evacuation orders cover the Riviera, Rustic Canyon and Wilshire Montana regions, stretching to San Vincente Boulevard.
Orders to evacuate from the Eaton Fire are stretching through Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge, and large swaths of Pasadena and Glendale.
Orders to evacuate from the Hurst Fire are stretching through the suburban neighborhoods of Sylmar in Los Angeles, Whitney Canyon Park and Elsmere Canyon.
Residents can check for evacuation zones on CalFire’s interactive, updated map here: here.
Power outages
Roughly 319,493 customers are without power in California, according to poweroutage.us. Los Angeles County residents alone represent 226,245 of the customers facing outages.
About 27,184 customers in San Bernardino County; 24,840 in Riverside County; 14,965 in Orange County, 13,418 in Ventura County and 9,248 in San Diego County are affected.
Smoke and air quality
Across Southern California, residents are facing air quality conditions deemed hazardous by the U.S. Air Quality Index from the Environmental Protection Agency.
From Los Angeles to Pasadena, near the Eaton blaze, air sensors are picking up “hazardous” to “very unhealthy” conditions. Other surrounding areas — including near Redondo Beach, Torrance, and some parts of Los Angeles are also deemed “unhealthy.”
The EPA urges residents to wear N95 respirators to protect their lungs from smoke, limit time spent outdoors in the open air, and use an air purifier to reduce smoke particles indoors.
