Homes along Scenic Drive in Dana Point last week after a landslide brought tons of rock and soil crashing into the sea. Authorities will be keeping close watch on these properties and other areas battered by recent rains as a new storm rolls into Southern California.
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David McNew
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The latest winter storm to arrive in the region isn't expected to bring the same record-breaking amount of rainfall to Los Angeles as the recent storm, but the lengthy system still poses major risks to the area.
What we know so far: Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected to hit Los Angeles County Monday morning and continue on and off until Wednesday morning.
2 - 5 inches of rain, up to 8 inches in the foothills and mountains
Several feet of snow possible above 7,500 ft
High surf and coastal flooding possible
About 20% chance of thunderstorms in most areas
This story is no longer being updated. Get LAist's latest information about the storm:
The latest winter storm to arrive in the region isn't expected to bring the same record-breaking amount of rainfall to Los Angeles as the atmospheric river earlier this month, but the lengthy system still poses major risks to the area.
"Los Angeles County may not be as favored as far as the overall rain totals and rain intensities," said David Gomberg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "However, we are still very concerned about the impacts there in terms of flooding and mudslides — just because of the antecedent conditions present with the heavy rains last week in L.A. County."
This latest storm, with moderate to heavy rain predicted on and off until Wednesday, lands on the heels of back-to-back atmospheric rivers that caused widespread damage to the Los Angeles region, including numerous landslides. Most of L.A. County is currently under a flood watch.
The mountains and foothills of western Ventura County are expected to receive the most rainfall, as well as areas northward including Santa Barbara County. Gomberg said up to 8 inches of rain could fall in those places, and rain rates there could reach up to 1 inch an hour.
The rest of the region, including Los Angeles, could see up to 5 inches of rain at a much lower intensity — except for the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills. "They could be pushing upwards of an inch per hour," Gomberg said.
Gomberg also warned of coastal flooding, particularly in Santa Barbara and Malibu on Tuesday morning.
Mayor Karen Bass has announced a number of measures to prepare for this storm, including extending the operating hours of 311 on Sunday and Monday until 10 p.m.
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Courtesy National Weather Service
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Flash Flood Warnings
A flash flood warning has been issued through 6 p.m. Monday for an area of far Western L.A. County that has more than 800,000 residents.
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Courtesy NWS
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Flash flood warnings overnight were extended until 10:30 a.m. Monday for parts of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
Ventura County
A flash flood warning is in place in this area until 10:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 19. About 190,000 people live in the affected area, according to the National Weather Service.
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Courtesy NWS
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Santa Barbara County
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Courtesy NWS
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A flash flood warning is in place in this area until 10:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 19. About 232,000 people live in the affected area, according to the National Weather Service.
Evacuations and closures
Santa Barbara County
Evacuation warnings have been issued for these areas. Find out more here.
Properties along waterways associated with the Alisal burn areas. Evacuation warnings were lifted Monday afternoon for the Thomas and Cave burn areas.
Properties in the vicinity of Sycamore Creek, from Stanwood Drive down to parts of Ninos Drive, in the city of Santa Barbara.
Properties in the vicinity of Mission Creek, from Cota Street down to Highway 101 and between Chapala Street and Castillo Street, in the city of Santa Barbara.
These areas around recent burn scars could experience moderate mudflow and debris deposition. Find out more here.
City of Duarte
The natural canyons including Melcanyon Road and Deerlane Drive.
La Tuna Canyon
Within McDonald Canyon, Del Arroyo Drive, and La Tuna Canyon Road.
Agua Dulce
Soledad Canyon Road, and the burned hillsides below.
Topanga Canyon
Santa Maria Road, and the burned hillsides below.
Forecast
The heaviest rain is expected in Ventura County and northward, but the storm still brings threats of flooding, landslides and mudslides to Greater Los Angeles.
2 to 5 inches of rain, with up to 8 inches in the foothills and mountains
Several feet of snow possible above 7,500 ft
High surf and coastal flooding possible
About 20% chance of thunderstorms in most areas
What you should be on the lookout for
Residents in mountain, canyon and coastal areas should prepare for debris flows and flooding over the next week.
Those in landslide prone areas like the Palos Verdes Peninsula should be on the lookout for indications of land movement, including the formation of new cracks, the fracturing of underground utilities, doors and windows falling out of plumb and sounds of creaks and groans coming from the ground.
Los Angeles County Fire Department locations also have sandbags and sand.
Sand and sandbags are available at these locations in Orange County.
Understanding National Weather Service warnings
Here’s an excerpt from our guide to understanding flood warnings, if any are issued:
Flood advisories are how the NWS begins to raise the alarm. The goal is to give people enough time to take action.
Flood watches are your indicators to get prepared to move.
Aflood warning is issued when a hazardous weather event is imminent or already happening. When one is issued for your area, you need to get to higher ground immediately.
A flash flood warning is issued when a flash flood is coming or in progress. Flash floods are sudden and violent floods that can start within minutes.
If you're in L.A. County and need sand bags you can find some at local fire houses.
Staying safe when the winds are high
Watch for traffic signals that may be out. Approach those intersections as four-way stops.
Make sure you have a battery-operated radio and flashlights. Check the batteries to make sure they are fresh. Use flashlights for lighting during a power outage; do not use candles because they may pose a significant fire hazard.
If you’re in a vehicle with a fallen power line on it, stay in the vehicle and remain calm until help arrives. It is OK to use your cellphone to call 911. If you must leave the vehicle, remember to exit away from downed power lines and exit by jumping from the vehicle and landing with both feet together. You must not touch the vehicle and the ground at the same time. Then proceed away from the vehicle by shuffling and not picking up your feet until you are several yards away.
Water and electricity don’t mix. Water is an excellent conductor of electricity. Do not step in or enter any water that a downed power line may be touching.
Do not use any equipment inside that is designed for outdoor heating or cooking. Such equipment can emit carbon monoxide and other toxic gases.
If you use a generator, place it outdoors and plug individual appliances directly into it, using a heavy-duty extension cord. Connecting generators directly to household circuits creates “backfeed,” which is dangerous to repair crews.
Leave the doors of your refrigerator and freezer closed to keep food as fresh as possible. Place blocks of ice inside to help keep food cold. Check food carefully for signs of spoilage.
Check on your neighbors to make sure everyone is safe.
Tips on staying warm
State law requires residential units to have heating systems that can keep indoor temperatures at a minimum of 70 degrees. That means every dwelling unit and guest room offered for rent or lease should offer heating equipment, usually central air conditioning (A/C) or a wall heater. — Caitlin Hernández
Use heat smartly to save money: Cranking things like the A/C and wall heaters can be expensive. If money is tight, be judicious about how and when you use your utilities. For example, only use heaters at night or only set the thermostat to around 70 degrees.
Open and close those vents: If you have central A/C, look at where the vents are around your home. Are any open in places where you don’t stay long? Practice opening and closing those so warm air only goes where you need it (most vents should have a small toggle lever). Humidifiers can also help you warm things up — and it’s useful to add moisture into our dry air.
Adjust your wall heaters: If you have a wall heater, you can change the output by adjusting the knob (usually at the bottom). Since wall heaters can only warm the areas where they’re placed, it’s essential to close doors to rooms you won’t be in so hot air doesn’t get wasted.
Turn on your ceiling fan (really): If you have a ceiling fan, try turning it on. This sounds counterintuitive, but there’s science behind it. The direction a fan turns can push air in different directions, and since hot air floats up, you’ll want to move that around. Your fan should spin clockwise to create an updraft to circulate. Not all fans will have this option, though.
This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think fire, police, government officials and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes and/or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.
Erin Rode
is working on election coverage this fall, along with other topics.
Published November 4, 2026 6:27 PM
More than 30 cities in L.A. and Orange counties had tax increases or hikes of some kind on the Nov. 3 ballot.
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Raymond Rivera
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For LAist
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Topline:
Of the 32 total local tax measures on the ballot this week in Los Angeles and Orange counties, all but six appear poised to pass, according to early results. (There are still several more days of vote counting to come.)
Why it matters: Eleven transient occupancy tax measures, which tax overnight stays in hotels or short-term rentals, passed in cities from Burbank to Los Alamitos. Business-related taxes, such as taxes on business licenses or on certain businesses, also mostly passed, as did most parcel taxes in cities including Pasadena and Culver City.
Read on ... for more tax hikes that might be coming your way.
Longer wait times for graffiti removal and streetlight repair. Fewer police officers per shift. Completely eliminating school crossing guards.
Those are just some of the service cuts the city of South Gate made earlier this year as it stared down a $9.4 million annual budget deficit and a looming fiscal emergency.
But none of that was enough to convince South Gate voters to approve an 8% utility user tax that would have been tacked onto a wide range of utility bills, including electricity, water, cable and phone service. Now, the city is gearing up for more cuts, including closing sports fields and the city pool for the winter months.
South Gate’s utility tax was just one of the many ways Southern California cities asked their residents to give them more money via local tax initiatives this November, with proposed taxes on everything from hotel stays to cannabis businesses.
Eleven transient occupancy tax measures, which tax overnight stays in hotels or short-term rentals, passed in cities from Burbank to Los Alamitos. Most cities sought to increase their existing hotel taxes by anywhere from 1 to 5 percentage points, while Lynwood residents voted to establish a hotel tax for the first time.
Business-related taxes, such as taxes on business licenses or on certain businesses, also mostly passed, as did most parcel taxes in cities including Pasadena and Culver City.
But sales taxes saw more mixed results. Cudahy, San Gabriel, Orange, Santa Ana and Los Angeles all approved sales tax measures, while voters in Diamond Bar, Hermosa Beach and San Clemente all voted down their local sales tax proposals.
Most of those sales taxes focused on maintaining basic city services in communities facing big budget deficits, driven by the rising costs of insurance, maintenance and infrastructure projects, and employee pensions, among other factors. But in San Clemente, the proposed 1% sales tax would have specifically funded sand replenishment and other beach projects, along with wildfire prevention work. That measure appeared to be headed for failure, with just 36% of voters in support as of Wednesday afternoon.
Voters in San Marino approved an extension of their utility tax, and increased it from 5% to 6%. Last year, the tax provided almost $2.2 million in revenue.
City officials in South Gate had hoped for a similar boon, and projected the utility tax would bring in an estimated $10.4 million per year in general fund revenue, while raising total utility costs by about $39 per month for a typical household.
Leading up to the election, the city of South Gate pointed to other neighboring cities that have their own utility taxes, including Downey, Lakewood and Norwalk, where the tax mostly hovers around 5%. “South Gate is the exception, not the rule,” noted one city presentation that pointed to these other taxes in a bid to coax voters to go along.
Voters weren’t convinced. “I’m extremely frustrated that you now want to do electricity, water, sewer, cable, cell phone, gas. ... That hurts us. You’re passing that on to us and that is absolutely not acceptable,” said one resident at a City Council meeting on the measure earlier this year.
LAist has reached out to the city of South Gate about what’s next for the city.
What to keep in mind about these numbers
For LAist's charts showing vote counts, we get numbers directly from the L.A. County and Orange County registrars of voters for local races. Totals are updated on our site as soon as possible after the registrars provide new tallies. For statewide races, counts come from the California Secretary of State's Office.
Keep in mind that, in tight races particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after election day. That's because early voting and mail-in ballots have fundamentally reshaped how votes are counted and when election results are known. The upshot: Ballots can be postmarked up to and including Election Day. They're counted as long as the ballot arrives within seven days of the election and that window contributes to the lag time before results are announced.
In L.A. County, for example, daily updates on the counting are expected to take place at least once a day — usually around 5 p.m. — through Nov. 13. (There will be multiple updates on Nov. 5 and 6.) Then, the once-a-day counts will resume again on Nov. 17, 19, 25 and 27. The office is scheduled to certify election results by Friday, Nov. 27. In Orange County, there will be multiple updates after the polls close, and then daily updates weekdays at 5 p.m. until results are scheduled to be certified on or before Dec. 3.
The California Secretary of State is scheduled to certify the election results on Dec. 11.
Our priority during the vote count will be sharing outcomes and election calls only when they have been thoroughly checked and vetted by journalists. To that end, we will rely on official results and report when candidates concede. Otherwise, we rely on NPR and the Associated Press for race calls. We will not report the calls or projections of other news outlets. You can find more about NPR's and the AP's process for counting votes and calling races here and here.
City recognizes polyamory in domestic partnerships
Elly Yu
is part of LAist's reporting team covering news in our region.
Published November 4, 2026 5:56 PM
The West Hollywood City Council voted to pass an ordinance to create a domestic partnership registry for multi-partner relationships.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Topline:
People in polyamorous relationships can soon register as domestic partners in the city of West Hollywood under a new ordinance passed this week.
What’s new: The domestic partnership registry extends certain legal protections for polyamarous people in the city, including visitation rights to hospitals and jails in West Hollywood, as well as some tenant protections. People outside the city can also register.
Why it matters: “It's a landmark ordinance and really puts and continues to elevate West Hollywood as a city that is here to support queer people and queer families as they evolve in their needs,” said Chelsea Byers, a West Hollywood City Councilmember. She said polyamarous families “continue to be stigmatized and really even demonized in this country and so deeply misunderstood.”
Past history: The city became the first city in the nation to create a similar domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples in 1985.
The city of West Hollywood has approved an ordinance to create a domestic partnership registry for people in polyamorous relationships.
The domestic partnership registry extends certain legal protections for people in the city, including visitation rights to hospitals and jails in West Hollywood and some tenant protections. The registry doesn’t replace the state’s marriage or the state’s domestic partnership laws.
“It's a landmark ordinance and really puts and continues to elevate West Hollywood as a city that is here to support queer people and queer families as they evolve in their needs,” said Chelsea Byers, a West Hollywood City Council member. “I think that's a real joy that we can bring to people — that they can live in a greater sense of being seen and understood.”
How it works
To file, people in a multi-partner relationship will submit a form in person that will be provided by the City Clerk’s office — all members of the relationship will have to provide identification to the clerk.
The ordinance also offers an option by mail, if the signatures are notarized.
The ordinance builds on historical precedent
In 1985, the city became the first city in the nation to create a similar domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples. Similar to that registry, people outside the city can also register.
“This new law not only gives polyamorous unions legal recognition, it also gives people permission to imagine a future together and to plan their lives openly,” said Christina Fialho, president and founder of Rewrite the BiLine, an advocacy group for bisexual people and nonnuclear families, who advocated for the ordinance.
Several cities in Massachusetts have also passed multipartner domestic partnership laws.
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Among the sweeping victories by Democrats on Tuesday were wins in several congressional districts that Republicans had redrawn explicitly to boost their party ahead of the midterms.
The backstory: Republicans were bracing for some losses this election cycle, so last year President Donald Trump urged his party to take the extraordinary step of engaging in mid-decade redistricting efforts. As of Tuesday night, many of those efforts had failed.
What happened: Republicans redrew their maps with the expectation that the coalition of voters Trump won over in 2024 would support them this cycle. In Texas, Republicans were banking on gains made with Latino voters in new maps. But many of those voters shifted their support to Democrats this year.
Among the sweeping victories by Democrats on Tuesday were wins in several congressional districts that Republicans had redrawn explicitly to boost their party ahead of the midterms.
Republicans were bracing for some losses this election cycle, so last year President Donald Trump urged his party to take the extraordinary step of engaging in mid-decade redistricting efforts.
As of Tuesday night, many of those efforts had failed.
That included in Florida, where multiple Democrats — Kathy Castor, Pia Dandiya and Jared Moskowitz — won in redrawn districts, according to race calls by the Associated Press.
In North Carolina, Democratic Rep. Don Davis held on to his 1st District seat, even though Republicans in the state redrew it to be more competitive for the GOP. Trump would have won the redrawn 1st by nearly 12 percentage points, according to the Downballot.
Trump would have won by even more in Alabama's redrawn 2nd Congressional District, which Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures held on to, according to the AP race call.
Republicans in Alabama redid the state's congressional map after the U.S. Supreme Court further weakened the Voting Rights Act earlier this year.
Republicans redrew their maps with the expectation that the coalition of voters Trump won over in 2024 would support them this cycle. In Texas, Republicans were banking on gains made with Latino voters in new maps.
But many of those voters shifted their support to Democrats this year.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Libby Rainey
covers the news that shapes Los Angeles and how people change the region in return.
Published November 4, 2026 5:21 PM
California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton shows off his jacket as he concedes the race to Xavier Becerra at the Hyatt Regency Orange County in Garden Grove on Nov. 3.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Nationwide election results came at a relentless pace Tuesday night, each more of a Democratic upset than the next. But you may not have known if you were attending the California Republican Party's election night in Garden Grove.
The scene: In the dimly lit Hyatt ballroom where gubernatorial longshot Steve Hilton and his supporters gathered, the news channels were off, the music was turned up and “Don’t Stop Believin’” blasted throughout.
What happened: Minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m., the Associated Press called the governor’s race for Democratic favorite Xavier Becerra.
Read on...for more on the scene before Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton conceded Tuesday night.
Nationwide election results came at a relentless pace Tuesday night, each more of a Democratic upset than the last. But you may not have known if you were attending the California Republican Party's election night event in Garden Grove.
In the dimly lit Hyatt ballroom where gubernatorial longshot Steve Hilton and his supporters gathered, the news channels were off, the music was turned up and “Don’t Stop Believin’” blasted throughout.
Minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m., the Associated Press called the governor’s race for Democratic favorite Xavier Becerra.
Around the room, the occasional person glanced at their phone to sneak a peek at the growing GOP carnage. More of the crowd instead looked at each other or toward the empty stage, where a lectern stood in front of a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset.
Not long after, Hilton took the stage to concede the race — which had always been heavily favored against him in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.
“Maybe this isn’t the best year to be running for office as a Republican,” Hilton told his supporters, alluding to the election results that would soon lead the Democratic Party to win so big in the House and the Senate that many dubbed it a blue tsunami. “We see what’s going on around the country.”
Hilton knew the odds were long. He’d tried a number of tactics to win over California, including a suggestive advertisement suggesting voters should “Just Try” voting for him. He’d done his best to separate himself from President Donald Trump, who backed his campaign. He also attacked Becerra for staying largely out of the limelight since making it out on top of a chaotic primary.
None of Hilton’s appeals made a significant mark on the result, which trailed at around 36% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon.
Standing outside the ballroom, Matt Shupe, a spokesperson for the California GOP, conceded it was challenging terrain for Republicans this year across the country — and always in California.
“It’s pretty typical that the party that's not in power gains some seats, so I think that was pretty expected for the most part,” he said. “We'll plan on bringing the fight more intensely than ever in 2028.”
By 9:30 p.m., people were headed to their cars to go home.
