SAN FRANCISCO (TIP): A major storm pummeled California and the Pacific northwest on december 11 with heavy rain and high winds, killing one man, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, disrupting flights and prompting schools to close. Some 240 departing and incoming commercial flights were canceled at San Francisco International Airport and others were delayed for more than two hours, airport managers said. San Francisco’s famed cable car system was replaced by shuttle buses and a subway station was shut down through the morning rush hour because of a power outage and flooding, and the city’s electrified bus system was halted in many areas, transit officials said.

The Embarcadero, the city’s popular waterfront walkway, was closed due to flooding and some ferries were also canceled, stranding commuters. Some streets and major intersections were flooded in the San Francisco area, including the westbound lanes of Interstate 280 in the East Bay suburb of El Cerrito, according to the California Highway Patrol. Winds howled through Sacramento, the state capital, rattling buildings and whipping through trees before dawn, followed by heavy downpours.

The launch of an Atlas V rocket was scrubbed from Vandenberg Air Force Base. In southern Oregon, a homeless man camping with his 18-year-old son along the Pacific Crest Trail in the Ashland area was killed early on Thursday morning when a tree toppled onto their tent, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said. Portland general Electric Co and Pacific Power reported nearly 90,000 customers were without power as a storm system packing wind-gusts of 80 mph (129 kph) was moving through Oregon. To the north, in Washington state, a commuter train that runs between Seattle and Everett was canceled for two days beginning on Thursday after a mudslide on Wednesday, local transit officials said. “In certain parts of the West Coast this could be the most significant storm in 10 years,” National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Boldt said.

The Weather Service issued flashflood, heavy-surf and high-wind advisories, warning that torrential rains could lead to mudslides in foothill areas of California scarred by wildfires earlier this year. The storm was expected to provide only a small measure of relief from California’s record, multi-year drought that has forced water managers to sharply reduce irrigation supplies to farmers and prompted drastic conservation measures statewide, weather officials said.