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.
(LOS ANGELES) — The woman who said she was 13 when Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted her after the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards is heard on a recording agreeing Jay-Z did not assault her and saying her lawyer pushed her to sue Jay-Z.
The woman’s lawsuit against Jay-Z and Combs has since been withdrawn with prejudice, meaning it cannot be revived.
The recording, an excerpt of which was obtained by ABC News, is between the woman, identified as Jane Doe, and two private investigators associated with Carter.
“He was just there, but he didn’t have anything to do with any sexual acts towards you?” the private investigator asked.
“Yeah,” Jane Doe replied.
Carter’s attorney, Alex Spiro, denies that Jay-Z has ever met Jane Doe.
In the recording, the woman is heard telling the investigators that her lawyer, Tony Buzbee, put her up to suing Jay-Z.
“He was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him, with Jay-Z,” the woman is heard saying.
“Buzbee did?” the investigators asked. “Yeah,” the woman replied.
Buzbee called the idea that he pushed her into suing Jay-Z a “blatant lie.”
“As far as the suggestion that I pushed Jane Doe to bring a case against Jay Z – That is a blatant lie that is directly contrary to all the documentary evidence,” Buzbee said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Carter’s attorney said “the tape speaks for itself” and should leave no doubt about his innocence.
“She says in no uncertain terms Mr. Carter did not do this. It’s effectively a lie and the only reason Mr. Carter is even involved in this is because she was pushed to involve him,” Spiro told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
Jane Doe has said, in a sworn declaration, she stands by her claims and dropped her lawsuit because of “fear of intimidation and retaliation from Jay-Z” and his fans.
She also denied telling the investigators Buzbee sought her out as a client or that he encouraged her to pursue a false claim against Jay-Z. She said she felt “intimidated and terrified” at being confronted on her doorstep and that the investigators knew her name and address.
Spiro said the investigators who approached Jane Doe did not coerce or threaten her.
“She voluntarily met, spoke to them and she told them her truth, which was under no circumstances did Mr. Carter do this,” Spiro said.
Jay-Z, who has sold more than 140 million albums, is one of the world’s best-selling artists. He is married to Beyoncé and they share three children. His attorney said that this has impacted the Carter family.
“It’s tough to hear a false lie said about you, spread through the internet, and affecting your children,” Spiro said. “It’s tough on him. It’s tough on anybody. But what he does is he proves himself innocent. Today is hopefully the final chapter in that. And then they’re gonna move forward. That’s what Jay does.”
Carter is now suing Jane Doe and Tony Buzbee for defamation, which they deny.
“The truth had to fully come out. This person cannot be allowed to sort of hide from the reality that this was a false accusation,” Spiro said.
(WASHINGTON) — The judge who dismissed former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case should have the final say about the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on the case, lawyers for Trump’s former co-defendants told a federal appeals court Wednesday afternoon.
The attorneys asked the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to defer their decision to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who could hold a hearing over whether to release the report.
“This reflects an improper attempt to remove from the district court the responsibility to oversee and control the flow of information related to a criminal trial over which it presides, and to place that role instead in the hands of the prosecuting authority — who unlike the trial court has a vested interest in furthering its own narrative of culpability,” lawyers for Trump aide Walt Nauta and staffer Carlos De Oliveria argued.
The arguments came a day after Cannon temporarily blocked the release of Smith’s final report in order to prevent “irreparable harm,” while the matter is considered by the Eleventh Circuit.
Earlier Wednesday, attorneys in the U.S. attorney general’s office said in a filing that Attorney General Merrick Garland does not intend to publicly release the portion of the report related to the classified documents case, though the volume will be available to the ranking members and chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.
Defense lawyers argued in their afternoon filing that the limited disclosure of the full report to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees would imperil the case through possible leaks, calling the prosecution a “political case.”
“The functioning of the political press depends on leaks, and if such leaks occur here, there will be no recourse for the defendants whose due process rights are at stake,” the filing said. “The concern about leaks cannot be overlooked; Congress is a political body; its individual members have political aims; and this is a political case.”
Though the defense lawyers acknowledged the politics related to the report in their filing, they accused prosecutors of creating “fake urgency” related to the timing of the report’s release.
“The only counsel in this case now claiming urgency is the Attorney General, but the government’s brief does not explain this urgency,” lawyers wrote in papers filed less than two weeks from Trump’s inauguration. “The Attorney General is an office and not an individual: It will continue in perpetuity. The urgency of political activity is a fake urgency.”
Prosecutors in their filing also indicted that Garland intends to publicly release the portion of the report related to his federal election interference case against Trump.
They argued in their filing that Garland has the “inherent” authority to release the report, and they asked the Eleventh Circuit to vacate Judge Cannon’s order and deny the request from Trump’s former co-defendants, Nauta and De Oliveira, to block the release of the report.
Prosecutors argued that because Smith already transmitted his report to Garland, the argument made by Trump’s former co-defendants about the legitimacy of Smith’s appointment is “moot.”
“The Attorney General is the Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice and is vested with the authority to supervise all officers and employees of the Department. The Attorney General thus has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates,” prosecutors said in their filing.
“That authority is inherent in the office of Attorney General; it does not depend on the lawfulness of the Special Counsel’s appointment to take actions as an inferior officer of the United States or on the Department’s specific regulations authorizing the Attorney General to approve the public release of Special Counsel reports,” the filing said.
While defense attorneys had sought to block the release of Volume Two of the report related to the classified documents case — and not Volume One, which covers Trump’s election interference case — Judge Cannon’s order referred only to the “final report,” and not the two volumes within, suggesting that the entire report was blocked from release.
Prosecutors asked the appeals court to “make clear that there is no impediment to the Attorney General allowing for limited congressional review of Volume Two as described above and the publicly release of Volume One.”
The filing makes clear that the decision by Garland to not release the volume of the report involving the classified documents investigation was recommended by Smith himself when it was transmitted to Garland Tuesday evening.
“Because Volume Two discusses the roles of defendants Nauta and De Oliveira, and because those matters remain pending appeal before this Court, the Special Counsel explained in his cover letter to the Attorney General that, “consistent with Department policy, Volume Two should not be publicly released while their case remains pending,”” the filing says.
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back.
The former president, along with Nauta and De Oliveira, also pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to allegedly attempting to delete surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Smith has been winding down his cases against the former president since Trump was reelected in November, due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
(WASHINGTON) — After two deadly plane crashes in the past week — one in Washington, D.C., killing 67, and another in Philadelphia, killing 7 and injuring 19 — it wouldn’t be unusual if travelers reported heightened apprehension toward air travel, according to experts.
“Given the fact that there were two incidents that were pretty large in the past seven days, I would say people that are on the fence about whether or not to book that vacation are probably hesitant to do that,” said psychotherapist and licensed aviator Michaela Renee Johnson.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, around 25 million adults in the U.S. have a fear of flying, also known as aerophobia. It’s not abnormal to be hesitant about airline travel after a traumatic aviation incident, especially when there are casualties involved, said aviation law expert Robert Clifford.
“People tend to immediately think, ‘Uh-oh, they all must be unsafe, and it must be a huge risk for me to fly’ — and they question whether or not they should get on the next flight they have scheduled,” Johnson told ABC News.
Media psychologist Don Grant told ABC News that the way these tragedies are portrayed in the media can trigger new cases of air travel anxiety, or even elevate existing worries.
“If you already have a fear of flying, then you see something like this, it’s like the monsters under the bed are actually real,” Grant said.
When there are life-threatening events, Johnson said the brain uses survival techniques, like the “fight or flight” response, to protect from impending danger. Even though the body might be responding correctly to the recent tragedies, Johnson said it isn’t taking into account the facts surrounding airline travel safety.
“Yes, our brain is doing what it’s supposed to be doing by assessing the risk, but it’s not really considering the fact that in perspective, it’s actually an incredibly safe way to travel,” Johnson told ABC News.
Despite the recent incidents, experts still argue that flying is the safest form of transportation.
In a 2024 study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers found that the “death risk per boarding for worldwide air travelers was 1 in 13.7 million” in the 2018-2022 period. This reflects a steep increase in safety as compared to the previous half-century, following a pattern of the risk of fatalities dropping 50% per decade, according to the study.
The Department of Transportation estimated that 86.8 million passengers were moved by aircraft in August 2024.
But will those numbers persist after the recent crashes?
Johnson told ABC News that it depends: Those who travel frequently for business will still need access to commercial airlines, whereas those who only go on vacation every few years might consider other forms of transport.
Regardless of the statistics, Johnson said many feel a lack of control when stepping into an airplane, causing anxiety to heighten.
“We’re sitting in the back, we don’t know how to fly an airplane, we don’t know what’s happening up front, we don’t know what’s happening in the air around us,” Johnson said. “That can create a lot of discomfort for people. You have to talk yourself through the idea that the pilots also want to get home that night.”
For those struggling to book their next plane ticket, Johnson suggested the following tactics for combatting anxiety: journaling, avoiding flights in the winter or during hurricane seasons, and writing preemptive letters to loved ones (just in case).
But at the same time, Johnson urges others to remember this: “How much of your life are you willing to sacrifice for the fear that you may die?”
“When we think about fear as a motivating factor for a lot of things that we do in our lives, we have to really question how much of it is rational and how much of it is irrational,” Johnson said. “None of us is getting off the planet alive.”
Grant also provided a simple solution to alleviate aviation anxieties: “Put the phone down.”
He recommends reading the news from reliable sources — but not scrolling endlessly online, looking at countless stories on the topic. He also suggested looking into how planes work, reading about the training pilots are required to have or joining am aerophobia support group.
