In California, the evacuation of several places has been ordered, including numerous celebrities, such as Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle.

The number of deaths from the severe storms in the US state of California has risen to at least 17. Governor Gavin Newsom named this number of victims on Tuesday (local time) in a new interim report on the winter storms that have been going on for days. The day before, Newsom had put the number of dead at at least 14.

The heavy storms and rain caused flash floods and landslides. Numerous streets were flooded and trees were uprooted. According to the website Poweroutage.us, around 150,000 households in the west coast state were without electricity on Tuesday afternoon (local time).

According to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, two occupants of a car in the city of Bakersfield were among the fatalities. The car crashed after a tree fell on the road. In Paso Robles, a small town between Los Angeles and San Francisco, a five-year-old boy who was swept away by the floods has been missing since Monday. He was still not counted among the dead. The boy’s mother was saved.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of several localities, including the small town of Montecito. Many celebrities live in the town about 90 minutes by car south of Los Angeles on the Pacific coast, including Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, talk show legend Oprah Winfrey and actress Jennifer Aniston.