Mayor Eric Garcetti urged Los Angeles residents to be prepared for El Niño-related storms expected in the coming week.
"This storm is real — and it's coming," Garcetti said at a news conference Sunday evening.
A series of storms was expected to strike in the coming week, bringing rain, snow, and potential flooding beginning Sunday evening.
The stronger storm was expected to make landfall bringing one to two inches of rain on Tuesday.
Residents in Huntington Beach and Ventura County were preparing for the pending storms with sandbags, guard rails and more.
Garcetti said the city has gathered an emergency team dedicated specifically for preparing for El Niño storms in addition to tripling the number of outreach teams.
He urged residents to avoid driving over to where waters were rising.
"That's where people get caught — in their vehicles, in that water, sometimes losing their lives," Garcetti said.
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"Tens of thousands of storm drains" were cleared to help prevent flooding, the mayor said.
Garcetti also said there were things residents could do, like clearing storm drains, and getting sandbags from a local fire station if mudslides are a threat.
He also encouraged residents to have a plan to meet loved ones should a crisis occur.
"Last El Niño, the big storm that happened 18 years ago, we lost about 14 people," Garcetti said. "We had billions of dollars of damage. We are determined to get in front of this."
Winter shelters were open, and the number of beds was increased by 50 percent to 1,500, Garcetti said.
There will be spaces available "whether it's for homeless individuals, or people who will become homeless because their homes get destroyed by mudslides or other things," Garcetti said.
Garcetti also said residents could get information from an El Niño preparation site as well as alerts on their smartphones.
