美国国家公共电台 NPR--Storms keep pummeling California, causing widespread flooding and evacuations

Storms keep pummeling California, causing widespread flooding and evacuations

Transcript¹

In Southern California, flooding shut down a major highway in Ventura County, and more rain is expected. Torrential storms across the state have killed at least 17 people.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In California, powerful storms have killed at least 17 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

DWANE BROWN, HOST:

And more torrential rain is on the way. Here's California governor, Gavin Newsom.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GAVIN NEWSOM: We're not out of the woods. We expect these storms to continue at least through the 18 of this month. We expect a minimum three more of these atmospheric² rivers.

FADEL: NPR's Nathan Rott is in one of the affected³ areas, in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles. He joins us now. Good morning, Nate.

NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE⁴: Hey. Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So what's the situation where you are?

ROTT: All right, so some parts of this county got more than 18 inches of rain over two days, just to give you a little perspective here. So there's still some localized flooding, road closures. But generally speaking, Ventura County is doing better than a lot of places along the California coast. The Ventura River, which cuts along the west end of town, is down significantly compared to where it was. But even still, Leila, this is a river where it meets the coast that you can usually kind of roll up your pants, walk or even jump across, and yesterday when I went down there, it was at least 50 yards wide and who knows how deep because it...

FADEL: Wow.

ROTT: ...Looked like chocolate milk that you definitely wouldn't want to drink.

FADEL: Oh, man. So more than a dozen people had to be rescued from that river, right?

ROTT: Yeah, that's right. There was a lot of coverage⁵ about it here. I actually talked to some of those folks. They are unhoused and usually live in a little tent encampment down by the river. They're now camped out under a nearby overpass⁶. One of the guys, Frankie, who didn't want to give his last name because some of his family don't know that he's currently homeless, said his brother actually woke him up in his tent when the flooding started. And I'll let him tell you the rest.

FRANKIE: I looked outside, and it was already ankle deep all around the tent. In probably about 20 minutes, it was up to our waist. And by the time they shot a ladder over the bridge down to us, we were hanging on to tree stumps⁷, you know, tree foliage⁸, you know, coming out of the ground, stuff like that. We were - there's seven of us. We all climbed up on the ladder and - rescued.

ROTT: And he said it was probably one of the scariest moments of his life.

FADEL: Sounds terrifying. How's the rest of the state doing with all of this water?

ROTT: It really depends on the location.

FADEL: OK.

ROTT: There's been widespread flooding along some parts of the coast. There were some levee failures inland. San Francisco was seeing pea-sized hail for a while yesterday. And this whole storm system isn't over, as we heard from the governor. Mike Anderson, the state climatologist, said in a press conference yesterday there's still uncertainty⁹ about how severe the upcoming storms later this week and weekend will be. Let's take a listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MIKE ANDERSON: Challenge now that we're getting to is that the river should not receding¹⁰ as much as they were earlier due to how much rain has fallen and the volume of water in the system.

ROTT: So any new water coming from these upcoming atmospheric rivers won't have as many places to go, which, of course, could lead to even more flooding.

FADEL: So let's talk about climate change and the role it's playing in these storms.

ROTT: Yeah. So look; it's still too early for any attribution science to have been done, which is basically how we'd be able to definitively¹¹ say that, yes, climate change has played a role in these storms. The link between climate change and atmospheric rivers, which are normal phenomena¹² here in California and in many parts of the world, that is still not totally clear. What we can say, though, is that warmer air holds more moisture, and that's what's been fueling some of these really destructive hurricanes we've experienced in the Southeast. And so we do know the world's air is warmer because of human actions, so these kinds of major precipitation events are expected to happen more frequently into the future.

FADEL: NPR's Nathan Rott in Ventura, Calif. Thank you so much.

ROTT: Yeah. Thank you, Leila.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

6 overpass   

n.天桥，立交桥

参考例句：

• I walked through an overpass over the road.我步行穿过那条公路上面的立交桥。
• We should take the overpass when crossing the road.我们过马路应走天桥。

7 stumps   

（被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分

参考例句：

• Rocks and stumps supplied the place of chairs at the picnic. 野餐时石头和树桩都充当了椅子。
• If you don't stir your stumps, Tom, you'll be late for school again. 汤姆，如果你不快走，上学又要迟到了。

8 foliage   

n.叶子，树叶，簇叶

参考例句：

• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage.小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
• Dark foliage clothes the hills.浓密的树叶覆盖着群山。

9 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

10 receding   

v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• Desperately he struck out after the receding lights of the yacht. 游艇的灯光渐去渐远，他拼命划水追赶。 来自辞典例句
• Sounds produced by vehicles receding from us seem lower-pitched than usual. 渐渐远离我们的运载工具发出的声似乎比平常的音调低。 来自辞典例句

11 definitively   

adv.决定性地，最后地

参考例句：

• None of the three super-states could be definitively conquered even by the other two in combination. 三个超级国家中的任何一国都不可能被任何两国的联盟所绝对打败。 来自英汉文学
• Therefore, nothing can ever be definitively proved with a photograph. 因此，没有什么可以明确了一张照片。 来自互联网

12 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。