Heavy rains in California leave backyard pool perched on cliff edge

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SAN CLEMENTE, California, March 16 (Reuters) - As heavy rains soaked into already sodden ground in California, mudslides in the beachfront community of San Clemente forced evacuations of blufftop homes this week and in one case left a swimming pool dangling partway off the cliff edge.

Drone visuals showed a large chunk of the backyard taken out by the mudslide. Patio furniture and plant pots are strewn along the long drop down to the bluff's bottom.

[1/2] A backyard pool is left hanging on a cliffside after torrential rain brought havoc on the beachfront town of San Clemente, California, U.S. March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake

The West Coast is getting pounded by an usually wet season following two decades of drought, creating havoc on roads and endangering houses along the coastline in southern California's Orange County.

This week, the 11th atmospheric river of the season dumped more torrential rain, causing power outages and risking flooding from the already saturated soils and swollen streams.

Although the rain had finally tapered off in the area by Thursday, forecasters have warned that another storm could be incoming next week.

Reporting by Mike Blake, Writing by Rosalba O'Brien Editing by Alistair Bell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Mike Blake is a senior photographer with Reuters and a member of the Pulitzer Prize winning team for Breaking News Photography in 2019. He began his career with Reuters in Toronto, Canada in 1985 and has traveled the World covering Olympic Games (18 in total) and World sporting events as well as breaking news and feature stories. Previously based in Vancouver and now Los Angeles, Blake attended Emily Carr College of Art and began his career making prints at a major daily newspaper. Blake grew up skateboarding and taking pictures and continues to do so now in his spare time.

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