evacuation warning, be prepared to leave with your pets and medications and when we give you evacuation orders, and i understand that people have evacuation fatigue, and this happened in january and it did not happen, but we can only give you the warnings based on the best data that we can. >> reporter: the floodwaters are not expected to recede for a few week. >> thank you, monica, for that. and now, the justice department is going after a drugstore chain for knowingly filling opioid p prescriptions. the case against rite aid. the n for you. so, you can stay connected to all your driverers and stores on america's mostst reliable 5g network. that sounds just paw-fect. terrier-iffic i labra-dore you round of a-paws
riverside county alone. and those mandatory evacuation orders, thousands of people affected by them. take lake elsinore, just south of where we are, it's under its sixth mandatory evacuation in just the past couple of months. and officials there concerned over evacuation fatigue, with only about 25% of the people there actually leaving. david? >> wow, the l.a. river so often bone dry, raging there behind you. matt, thank you. let's get right to senior meteorologist record rob marciano, tracking this as it now moves across the country. hey, rob. >> reporter: hi, david. such a powerful storm, with widespread amounts of half a foot of rain. and we had record amounts of water in the atmosphere measured above san diego. look at this atmospheric river, now driving inland. and the deserts are getting involved, palm springs, over three inches. las vegas, phoenix, you're getting it, as well. the next storm will be colder. that will drop and that will bring an avalanche threat. salt lake, the mountains of colorado will get it. it does weaken as it gets into the midsection, but significant snow tomorrow, kansas city to st. louis and parts of the ohio valley could see four or five inches, and that does eventually push to the east this weekend. david?
even as we speak? >> reporter: well, yes. that's an interesting supposition here, tony, what we found by digging a little deeper is they told the familiars in some 260 homes that they had to evacuate. here's the interesting part. they were given the option to sign a waiver saying, we understand the risks and we're not leaving. many people in this community have what you would call evacuation fatigue. you may recall even last february they were told to leave and many times since then they've been told to be on pins and needles and be ready to leave. what's happened, people have sort of burrowed themselves in and taken other precautions. you have the sandbags, you've got the runoff here, and if you look just down the way here you can see what some of the homeowners did, especially those who are staying, is they parked vehicles nose out and made other precautions. for example, this gentleman with the rv here, there's a break in the sandbag. he's got plywood. you can pull that away easily, put the tarp over the windshield