The woman clung to a tree in pitch darkness. Nearby, her gray pickup was submerged in murky, brown water. She was trapped along a fair-weather bridge, a causeway built over Coyote Creek just north of Ventura. The creek had overflowed and flooded the crossing after a powerful storm barreled into …

After a robust New 12 months’s Eve storm slammed the state, forecasters are warning Californians to arrange for one more “brutal” climate system that would deliver widespread flooding beginning midweek. After a weaker storm that moved in Monday, forecasters are centered on an atmospheric river that’s anticipated to deliver heavy …