The storm system, called the Pineapple Express because it gathers
moisture as it moves across the Pacific Ocean from near Hawaii, had
dropped up to 13 inches of rain since Wednesday, the National
Weather Service said.
"This is the last piece of energy that's rotating with this system
that went through California and Oregon and is moving through
Washington now," said Jim Hayes, a meteorologist with the National
Weather Service.
Heavy rain has spurred mudslides and flooding across the region.
In Washington, two mudslides on Saturday covered railroad tracks in
different parts of the state, shutting down Amtrak service between
Seattle and the suburb of Everett, and between Kelso and Portland,
Oregon, the passenger railroad said. Service was expected to resume
on Monday.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Feb/10/images/ads/current/sunloan_bch_010715.png) In Brinnon, west of Seattle, mudslides forced the evacuation of
several homes, while other residences were inundated after the
Duckabush River flooded, Jefferson County officials said.
The rain and accompanying wind gusts knocked out power to about
2,000 people around the San Francisco-area early on Monday, Pacific
Gas and Electric said. After a powerful storm on Friday, 60,000
people temporarily lost power.
More than 13 inches of rain had fallen on Petrolia, California, on
the northern coast, and 12.43 inches on Hoodsport, Washington, on
the Olympic Peninsula.
The precipitation was welcomed in California, which is experiencing
its worst drought on record, but was not drastically increasing
reservoir totals because much of the rainwater was running off,
Hayes said.
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"What they want is to build the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range,
because that's a slow release of the moisture once it melts in the
spring," Hayes said.
Several landslides were reported across Oregon, and flooding forced
some major road closures over the weekend, including 14 miles of
Highway 66 near Ashland.
The lack of snow, along with warm rains from the Pineapple Express
system, has also taken a bite out of the ski industry in the Pacific
Northwest, with some resorts closing runs and reducing prices to
attract business, the Seattle Times reported.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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