Pictured: Nicki Carano, woman crushed to death during California storm

A woman was killed by a tree that fell across four lanes on Sunday afteoon during a winter storm that battered Southe Califoia. 

Nicki Carano, a local musician and dance instructor, was driving a small Honda when she was killed by a tree that crushed four cars, according to CBS News.

Carano was passing by a residential street in Pacific Beach when a large oak tree fell across a roadway, blocking all four traffic lanes, San Diego Fire and Rescue Capt. Joe Amador said.  

 

Carano was killed after a tree measuring eight feet in diameter fell across a street onto four lanes of traffic during a wind storm in San Diego. Firefighters worked to remove the tree in Pacific Beach, Califoia, after powerful winds downed dozens of trees and power poles

The tree, which measured eight feet in diameter, also crushed three parked cars that were not occupied, he said.

'To the people out here dealing with the rain: be careful, drive slowly and arrive alive,' Amador said.

Carano was a graduate of Clairemont High School and taught at the San Diego Academy of Performing Arts and Nightingale Music School, according to her Facebook page. 

She was an experienced actor, singer and dancer who had performed both locally and worldwide.

 

Carano was a local musician and dance instructor who had performed worldwide and was teaching at the San Diego Academy of Performing Arts

Carano performed for the military on tours to Iraq, Africa, Kosovo and the Persian Gulf. She also performed with musical groups such as The Romantics, Dramarama and Doc Severson.

As a winter storm hit Califoia, strong winds downed dozens of trees and power poles and ripped off rooftops - and in one case, solar panels - across Southe Califoia.

Power outages affecting about 140,000 utility customers were reported across the Los Angeles and San Diego area.

 

Carano was passing by a residential street in Pacific Beach when a large oak tree fell across a roadway, blocking all four traffic lanes, San Diego Fire and Rescue Capt. Joe Amador said

The tree crashed onto three parked cars. It also crushed Carano's car as she was passing by 

Wind gusts topped 50 mph in the San Diego area and 65 mph in Malibu, according to the National Weather Service. The highest reading of the day was at Whitaker Peak, north of Castaic, where a gust was recorded at 115 mph.

The storm also dropped up to an inch of rain in some places by 4pm Sunday, and forecasters said up to two inches of rain was expected in the valleys of Los Angeles County and as many as three inches possible for southwest-facing foothills and mountains.

A flash flood watch was issued for foothill neighborhoods undeeath wildfire bu areas, triggering fears of possible mudslides and debris flows.

Blinding rain briefly brought traffic to a near-standstill on LA freeways. North of the city, a crash during a heavy downpour involving two trucks closed southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near the Grapevine. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The storm also chued up high surf along west and northwest-facing beaches. The rough seas prompted authorities to close the piers at Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach.

To the north, Interstate 80 near Truckee was closed for more than two hours after 29 vehicles got into a pileup amid snowy conditions, KCRA-TV reported.

Firefighters also rescued a man trapped by the fast-rising Los Angeles River as the system moved in and dumped up to 0.75 inches of rain by mid-moing. 

The man was uninjured after being pulled to safety along the riverbank area east of downtown known for homeless encampments. 

Storms usually develop far from Califoia, but this one developed unusually close, just 500 miles west of Santa Barbara, according to Daniel Swain, a Stanford University climate scientist. 

The relatively swift development of the system 'is somewhat unusual, though it tends to be more common during strong El Niño years when a strong jet stream resides over or just south of Southe Califoia,' Swain wrote in a blog post.