HEALDSBURG, Calif.—Heavy rain from a major storm prompted evacuations from communities near a Northern California river that forecasters said could breach its banks Friday, as the system continued to dump heavy snow in mountainous areas where some ski resorts opened for the season.
The storm arrived in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, mostly in the Seattle area, before moving through Northern California, where several roads were closed due to flooding and strong winds toppled trees.
Forecasters warned about the risk of flash flooding and rockslides in areas north of San Francisco from this season’s strongest atmospheric river—a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows through the sky over land….