At least 13 killed in US storms

At least 13 people have been killed in the western United States after a deadly El Nino storm brought five days of rain and high winds to the Pacific Coast.

Authorities warned there was more bad weather on the way and that the danger of mudslides was high.

“We are trying to scramble and get as much accomplished as possible before the next storm hits,” a spokesman for the Santa Cruz County sheriff’s department said.

Six people died in California, four were killed in a car crash in Utah, two people were killed in their bed by a falling tree in Oregon and a snowboarder was killed by an avalanche at a Nevada ski resort.

At its height, the storm left almost two million Californians without power.

The US Forest Service also warned of avalanches above 6,000ft in the Sierra Nevada, a playground for thousands of skiers where more than nine feet of snow has fallen at some resorts.

Rainfall records were toppled across California on Monday. In central Los Angeles nearly two inches fell in 24 hours – the most for 62 years.

In San Francisco, 2.1 inches were recorded, easily breaking the record of 1.36 inches set in 1962.