In the state of Washington, a person has died due to a falling tree, according to the rescue service.
70-year-old Wendy Harrington, whose house in Issaquah, Washington, was hit by a falling tree, initially thought that a wall had collapsed.
It felt explosive, like a bomb had gone off, she says to local KOMO-TV.
Everything was just very loud.
Early on Wednesday, local time, more than 600,000 households in the state are without power. But the figure is changing rapidly, writes AP – likely due to the difficulties power companies have in reporting amidst the widespread power outages.
The storm is expected to continue until Friday. Warnings for hurricane-force winds have been issued in several areas as this year's strongest atmospheric river – that is, when concentrated moisture sweeps through – hits the region. The storm is called a "bomb cyclone", a cyclone that intensifies particularly quickly.
"Trees are falling all over the city and overturning houses", writes the fire department in Bellevue, east of Seattle, on X.
People in the states of Washington, Oregon, and California are being urged to stay indoors and avoid windows. In California, including the San Francisco area, warnings have been issued for life-threatening floods and landslides due to the storm.
In the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges, heavy snowstorms are also being warned of, with large amounts of precipitation expected to cut off roads and cause problems in traffic.
