Los Angeles, Feb 14 (AP) A more than 100-vehicle pileup in whiteout conditions has closed part of a major interstate along the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon, authorities said Thursday.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said on social media that westbound Interstate 84 was closed near Multnomah Falls after a vehicle pileup in which an SUV caught fire.

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Authorities say the people in the SUV were able to escape.

First responders are searching car by car and injuries have been reported, authorities said.

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The high risk of mudslides prompted evacuation orders Thursday for some Los Angeles neighbourhoods ravaged by recent wildfires as the strongest atmospheric river of the season brought downpours, strong winds and flooding to much of California.

Meanwhile, Portland, Oregon, coated its streets with liquid anti-icer while officials in that state and Idaho opened emergency shelters to prepare for snow and ice.

Southern California could get as much as 6 inches (about 15 centimeters) of rain in the mountains and 3 inches (nearly 8 centimeters) in coastal areas and valleys before the system moves out Friday, according to Brent Bower, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. Powerful gusts could bring down trees, cause power outages and delay flights.

Ahead of the storm's arrival, officials distributed sandbags, prepositioned rescue swimmers and told residents to have go-bags ready.

"If you can, stay off the roads today, especially this afternoon and evening," the weather service office for Los Angeles posted Thursday on X.

Evacuation orders and warnings were issued in areas where hillsides were burned bare by the Palisades Fire, which was the most destructive in LA history, over concerns about potential debris flows during thunderstorms.

Sandbags and temporary concrete barriers were in place across Altadena, where the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes. Lowell Meyer, whose home was spared by the flames, surveyed the storm preparations on Wednesday.

“Any rain in California comes with unexpected and unfortunate consequences,” he said. “And Altadena has steep streets, so it makes sense that there should be concerns. ... I'm glad to see that people are taking it seriously.”

Scorched areas are more at risk of mudslides because vegetation that helps to keep soil anchored has been burned away and loose debris, including ash, soil and rocks.

All Malibu schools were closed Thursday, and in Orange County to the south, the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park shuttered due to the atmospheric river, a long band of water vapour that forms over the ocean and transports moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles, said the area is desperate for rain, but that this storm might bring too much too quickly. The result could be flash flooding and mud flows.

Despite recent storms, much of Southern California remains in extreme or severe drought, according to the US Drought Monitor.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, there were power outages, small landslides and inundated roadways. North of the city in wine country, concerns were high along the flood-prone Russian River.

Meanwhile, authorities urged people to evacuate Felton Grove, a small community along California's central coast, as the San Lorenzo River threatened to overspill its banks.

“Remaining in this evacuated area could cause a risk to personal safety and limit the ability of medical or rescue personnel to get to you,” the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

In neighbouring Nevada, the weather service said it recorded a measurable amount of rain in Las Vegas Thursday morning, ending a dry streak of 214 days without precipitation.

East hit with heavy snow and freezing rain

School was cancelled or delayed on Thursday in dozens of districts in New England, where snow and ice made driving dangerous. It wasn't the first snow day for many schools, and the Northeast is expecting another snowstorm this weekend.

Roads in Maine were icy during the morning commute. There snow was relatively light in the south of the state, but the district for the Kennebunk area, along Maine's southern coast, cancelled classes as a precaution.

“Asking our students and staff to commute in these conditions would put them at risk,” district superintendent Terri Cooper said in a statement.

Maine State Police said they were investigating a Thursday crash involving a tractor trailer on the Maine Turnpike that killed two people.

Thursday's storms followed two days of heavy snow and freezing rain in a swath of the eastern US stretching from Kentucky to Washington, DC, that caused hundreds of traffic accidents, knocked out power to tens of thousands and threatened to flood waterways.

The storm system brought more than 14 inches (37 centimetres) of snow to Iron Gate, a tiny Appalachian town in western Virginia, and 12 inches (30.5 centimetr3s) to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, a small city about 65 miles (105 kilometr3s) to the west, the National Weather Service said.

By Thursday afternoon, nearly 175,000 customers in Virginia and about 14,000 in North Carolina were still without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us. Virginia's Appalachian Power utility said restoration was expected to take days.

In Tennessee, Chattanooga's fire department said Thursday it rescued several people and animals trapped by rising waters in a large homeless encampment.

The region's airports received several inches of snow. Nearly 3,500 flights to or from U.S. airports were cancelled or delayed Thursday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.com. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)