美国国家公共电台 NPR--California was hit with historic New Year's rainfall, power outages and flash floods

California was hit with historic¹ New Year's rainfall, power outages and flash floods

Transcript²

Strong storms caused power outages and severe flooding in parts of California. A busy highway was closed after a river overflowed³ its banks near Sacramento. More rain is expected mid⁴ week.

ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:

What meteorologists call an atmospheric⁵ river brought an unexpectedly powerful storm with damaging floods and widespread power outages to California over the weekend. Nick Miller⁶ with member station CapRadio says emergency officials are now worried about other waves of storms heading their way.

NICK MILLER, BYLINE⁷: Everyone knew it would rain this weekend, but people did not expect this. In the mountains, blizzards⁸ trapped travelers in their cars near Lake Tahoe. In the Sacramento Valley, one river spilled over its levees, forcing thousands to seek higher ground and closing a major northwest highway. At least one person was found dead in their car near Sacramento.

BRIAN FERGUSON: There have been a number of rescues that took place with individuals who became trapped in their vehicles.

MILLER: That's Brian Ferguson. He's spokesperson for the state's Office of Emergency Services.

FERGUSON: The event that may be most similar to what we're experiencing now was spring of 2017, where we had the incident with the Oroville Dam.

MILLER: That's when one of California's largest dams was damaged and forced a city of nearly 200,000 people to evacuate⁹. Over the weekend, downtown San Francisco saw near record-setting rainfall and all kinds of urban flooding. Much of southern California also saw several inches. In California's capital city, fallen trees were a familiar sight when folks woke up on New Year's Day. Mary Spencer-Gode was born and raised in Sacramento.

MARY SPENCER-GODE: The wind was just going crazy. We turned our TV off so we could hear it. And I was sitting in the kitchen. I heard a big whoosh¹⁰ and kind of the house moved.

MILLER: She stepped outside and saw a century-old towering elm tree had ripped¹¹ through a neighbor's concrete driveway before crashing onto the residential¹² street.

SPENCER-GODE: And it didn't hit anything, which is so amazing.

MILLER: Californians will need that kind of luck to continue. No less than three atmospheric rivers are forecast to sweep across the state this coming week. For NPR News, I'm Nick Miller in Sacramento.

1 historic   

adj.历史上著名的，具有历史意义的

参考例句：

• This is a historic occasion.这是具有重大历史意义的时刻。
• We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。

2 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。

3 overflowed   

溢出的

参考例句：

• Plates overflowed with party food. 聚会上的食物碟满盘盈。
• A great throng packed out the theater and overflowed into the corridors. 一大群人坐满剧院并且还有人涌到了走廊上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

5 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。

6 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

7 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。

8 blizzards   

暴风雪( blizzard的名词复数 )； 暴风雪似的一阵，大量（或大批）

参考例句：

• Even in the summertime we might be struck by blizzards. 甚至在夏天，我们也可能受到暴风雪的袭击。
• Blizzards battered Britain for the third day. 大风雪袭击英国已进入第三天。

9 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

10 whoosh   

v.飞快地移动，呼

参考例句：

• It goes whoosh up and whoosh down.它呼一下上来了，呼一下又下去了。
• Whoosh!The straw house falls down.呼！稻草房子倒了。

11 ripped   

adj. <美俚>喝醉的，受毒品麻醉的 动词rip的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He had ripped up the carpet, leaving only the bare boards. 他用力扯去了地毯，只剩下裸露的地板。
• I ripped my jeans on the fence. 我的牛仔裤在栅栏上划破了。

12 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。