当地震和海啸无情地席卷东南亚时，美国加州也遭到了自然的袭击。圣诞节当天，一场20年来罕见的暴风雨袭击了加州南部圣贝纳迪诺县，使大洛杉矶地区数个城市的６万多用户断电，山区爆发山洪和泥石流。截至29日，已有14人在这次大面积泥石流中死亡，还有2人下落不明。外电报道如下：A powerful storm moved along the California's Coast Monday and Tuesday, causing highway-blocking mudslides, flooding and power outages.

The Pacific powerhouse rolled ashore Monday and a second storm is expected to follow on Wednesday. Forecasters expect wet weather to linger through next week.

The second wave of the storm system was expected to bring an additional 2 inches to 3 inches of rain to the San Francisco Bay region on Wednesday before moving toward Southern California, said Bob Benjamin, a NWS forecaster in Monterey.

Mudslide表示“泥流，泥石流”，尤指流速较慢的一类。另一类威力较大的泥石流被称为mud-rock flow，指山洪冲击挟带大量泥沙石块而形成的短暂急流。

据悉，圣诞节当天，一批危地马拉移民聚集在加州南部沃特曼峡谷的圣索菲亚野营地欢度节日，泥石流突然袭击营地，冲毁了一些营房。今年10月，受灾营地所在地曾遭受严重火灾，大火烧毁了大约3．6万公顷林地，严重破坏了森林植被。

（中国日报网站编）