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(NEW YORK) — Flood watches are in effect for more than 26 million people in California, which has already been ravaged by a series of catastrophic storms.

Two Pacific storm systems are forecast to bring precipitation to most of the state through the weekend. The widespread deluge is leading to flooding concerns in many spots that have already been inundated recently.

The systems are expected to bring “heavy lower elevation rain, significant mountain snow, and strong winds,” the National Weather Service said in a bulletin Saturday.

Among the impacts so far, the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services issued an evacuation warning Saturday afternoon for several areas amid a flood threat. Placer County authorities also reported roads closed Saturday due to falling boulders and erosion from the runoff the area has received.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services tweeted Sunday that its Swift Water & Flood Team rescued about 800 San Joaquin County residents affected by flood waters.

The first system is expected to bring heavy rain across California as it moves inland Saturday evening. Rainfall of 2 to 3 inches is possible along the coast, which could lead to “localized instances of urban and small stream flooding as well as mudslides,” the National Weather Service warned.

Lighter rainfall is possible on Sunday “with another ramp-up late Sunday into early Monday ahead of a second system,” the agency said.

Wind advisories are also in effect along portions of the coast and Central Valley for sustained winds upwards of 20-30 mph and gusts of 50 mph.

Snow will also continue to fall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains throughout the weekend, with 3 to 6 feet forecast through Monday.

The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab reported more than 21 inches of snow in the last 24 hours as of midday Saturday, with the snowpack approximately 10 feet deep. Another 2 to 3 feet of snow is expected to fall by Monday morning, it said.

California has been walloped by a near-constant onslaught of rain and snow. At least 17 people died during a severe storm system earlier this week, state officials said.

The National Weather Service had warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” on the West Coast over the coming week.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged residents to “be vigilant” as more dangerous conditions were forecast for this weekend.

“I know how fatigued you all are,” he said during a press briefing on Friday. “I hope you just maintain a little more vigilance over the course of the next weekend and we’ll get through this.”

The storms are expected to impact the state until Jan. 18, according to the governor.

ABC News’ Daniel Amarante contributed to this report.

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(BOSTON) — Nearly 60 years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed thousands on the Boston Common, city officials unveiled a sculpture commemorating the civil rights leader and his wife, Coretta Scott King.

The bronze sculpture, which is 20 feet tall and 26 feet wide, is the largest monument in the U.S. dedicated to racial equity and is located in the town where the couple first met. King was studying as a doctoral student in theology at Boston University when he met Coretta, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music.

“Boston became the place where they forged a partnership that would change America and make a powerful contribution to the Black freedom struggle. That’s what I see in this beautiful monument,” said Martin Luther King III, son of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the unveiling.

This $10 million sculpture, which took five years to create, celebrates their life together and compliments the 30-foot King memorial at The National Mall.

The Boston piece depicts the arms, shoulders and hands of the two hugging after King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 — a moment special to Black conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, creator of “The Embrace.”

“That was really the culmination of over a decade of incredibly hard work that not only Dr. King did, but also Mrs. King,” Thomas said in an interview with Good Morning America.

“In that embrace, I see so much. I see teamwork, I see joy,” Thomas said, adding, “I see both of their strengths, but especially hers. I see the way that she is really holding him up in this picture and actually recognizing that that is a symbol for a lot of what she did for him, for the family, but also for the country.”

Thomas is experienced when it comes to public art and has practiced the expression for nearly 20 years, finding passion in not just sculpting but in photography, video and printmaking based on elements of history.

“This is a work that’s going to be in Boston Common, which has been around for 400 years. So possibly it’s going to be in Boston Common for another 400 years,” Thomas said. “Rather than it being a monument to a hero of a war or victims of a war — It’s actually a monument to two heroes of nonviolence and so I’m really excited to see a new gesture and a new way of celebrating people.”

The sculpture was unveiled by Embrace Boston, a nonprofit with a mission to dismantle structural racism through the intersection of culture and community. The event featured statements from Martin Luther King III, his wife, Andrea Waters King, and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King, the only granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

“There is a sense in which we are all children and grandchildren of Martin and Coretta Scott King,” Yolanda, 14, said during the celebration.

“We are all challenged to carry for their unfinished work. This is the spirit we must keep as we commemorate the 37th Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.”

The sculpture has been place near where King led 20,000 people in the civil rights era protest of the segregation of schools. It’s attracted many since its unveiling.

“The work of the Kings was so monumental in the United States because it signified a shift in the way that we as a society could address social challenges and so while there were millions of people who were part of this effort,” Thomas said.

He added, “For everyone, that was something that shifted everything. That’s the reason you and I are here. The reason that any of us are here and have the opportunities we have today, no matter what our ethnicity is, is really a result of that work.”

ABC News’ Abby Cruz and Nicholas Massenburg-Abraham contributed to this report.

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(SELMA, Ala.) — Amanda McCloud was working in a Selma, Alabama, day care changing a toddler’s diapers when she heard the tornado sirens begin to wail.

“Most of the time, nothing ever happened,” she told ABC News about the tornado sirens she’s grown used to hearing, but she said it was different last Thursday.

There have been at least nine deaths as a result of a tornado that struck the South last week, according to authorities.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency on Thursday for Autauga, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore and Tallapoosa counties, tweeting that those counties “were in the path of Mother Nature’s wrath.”

McCloud was working at the Crosspoint Christian Church’s child care and preschool in Selma, entrusted with caring for about six children that ranged in age from 7 weeks to 4 months old. Sixty children attended the preschool and nursery, with students as old as 4 years old, she said.

McCloud said she and her coworker tried to move the toddlers to a safer location within the day care once the sirens began, searching for a windowless room to shelter in place. She found all four bathrooms filled with children and staff, so McCloud said she decided to shelter with the children in her supervisor’s office.

With the power out, McCloud said she leaned over to protect a 7-week-old infant just as the worst of the storm set in.

“And then the roof just fell, like tiles and the ceiling tiles, you know, everything on top of us,” she said. “So, like it was pouring down rain on the kids.”

McCloud said she began yelling for help as the roof collapsed and exposed the children to the wind and rain.

“I was just like, ‘our roof is off, our roof is off.’ I was just screaming for help because I was hoping the bathroom people would come help us, you know, get the kids out,” she said. “But they were all probably screaming too.”

Once the fear subsided, she said she needed to get the children to another place to shelter.

“It was just pouring down rain…,” she said. “And I was like, ‘oh my god, yeah, we gotta get out of here.'”

As she tried to move the kids to a safer location, McCloud said she was surprised to find a 4-month-old child unscathed under the rubble.

“She was up under all of the ceiling tiles. And she just had a little [pacifier] in her mouth, not crying or anything,” McCloud said.

McCloud said she then tried to move the children to a bathroom, but they made a startling discovery. There was a smell of gas in the crowded bathroom where other children were hiding.

“People were coming just saying, ‘we smell gas, we smell gas!'” she said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, me too,’ because we gotta get out of the building.”

The roughly 60 children and staff of the day care then moved to a neighboring church, where parents picked up their children.

McCloud said other than some minor injuries, the children were unscathed, which she attributed to the attentiveness and maturity of the children.

“My kids really listened really good that day. It wasn’t hard moving them. They really did great,” she said.

Throughout the incident, McCloud said she worried about her daughter, a 15-year-old at a nearby high school.

“I really wanted to run down there and check on her,” she said. “But you know, I couldn’t leave my kids.”

McCloud has a simple response when asked how she handled the stress of the storm and the pressure of being responsible for other people’s children.

“I didn’t think about … what to do,” she said. “I just did it.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a near-collision between a Delta and American Airlines aircraft at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the government agency announced.

A Boeing 737 operated by Delta stopped its takeoff roll about 1,000 feet away from where American Airlines Flight 106, a Boeing 777, had crossed from an adjacent runway on Friday around 8:45 p.m., according to the FAA.

The Delta Flight 1943 came to a safe stop on Runway 4-Left after air traffic controllers noticed the other aircraft crossing the runway in front of the departing jetliner, the FAA said in a preliminary statement.

There were 145 passengers and six crew members on Flight 1943, which was flying to Santa Domingo Airport in the Dominican Republic, Delta said in a statement.

The airline described the incident as a “successful aborted takeoff procedure,” adding passengers deplaned after returning to the gate. The flight was then delayed overnight due to crew resources and were provided overnight accommodations, Delta said.

Flight 1943 eventually departed at 10:17 a.m. Saturday, Delta said.

Delta Airlines will work with and assist aviation authorities on the full review of the incident, according to the statement.

“The safety of our customers and crew is always Delta’s number one priority…” Delta said in the statement. “We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay of their travels.”

When asked for comment by ABC News, American Airlines deferred to the FAA.

Additional information on the incident was not immediately available.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the incident, the agency announced Sunday afternoon.

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(HOUSTON) — One person was killed and four others were wounded when a carload of armed assailants unleashed a barrage of more than 50 shots early Sunday morning on patrons outside a suburban Houston nightclub, police said.

Investigators are searching for witnesses and asking nearby businesses for surveillance video in what police described as a “scary” drive-by shooting involving multiple gunmen.

No arrests have been announced.

The shooting unfolded just outside a Lounge 33 nightclub in a shopping center in an unincorporated area northwest of Houston, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said during a news conference as investigators behind him collected shell casings and searched for evidence in a parking lot outside the nightclub.

Gonzalez said patrons of the nightclub were milling around the parking lot, some lined up at a food truck, when the shooting erupted.

He said a vehicle pulled up to the front of the nightclub just after 2 a.m., and multiple occupants got out and began firing at the crowd of patrons.

“It looks like over 50 shots were fired here, which is a very scary situation, considering there’s a mobile food truck and again the number of patrons that were outside,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said sheriff’s deputies responded to the shooting and found two men and three women suffering from gunshot wounds. He said the victims were taken to area hospitals, where one of the wounded men was pronounced dead.

The names of those shot were not immediately released.

Gonzalez said deputies were canvassing the area for witnesses, adding that most fled the scene by the time deputies arrived.

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(NEW YORK) — The winning numbers were drawn Friday night for the Mega Millions jackpot that has surged to $1.35 billion, the second-largest in the game’s history, and one ticket in Maine has matched all of the numbers to win.

The winning ticket was sold at the Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, according to Maine Lottery. Lebanon is in southern Maine along the New Hampshire border.

“It’s fantastic,” Fred Cotreau, the owner of Hometown Gas & Grill, told ABC News.

“I am excited to find out who it is,” Cotreau said, adding that he hopes the winner is a local resident.

“Hopefully, he shows up in a Ferrari and continues to use my establishment for his convenience and gasoline needs,” Cotreau said with a laugh.

“We’re on somewhat of a busy road, so we really don’t know if it’s a local or out-of-stater. And regardless, I’m happy for them and hope money goes to good use,” he added.

The winning numbers were 30, 43, 45, 36, 61 and the megaball was 14.

The Mega Millions jackpot has now reset to $20 million for Tuesday’s drawing — which means there has been at least one ticket to match all numbers drawn, according to the Mega Millions website.

The Mega Millions jackpot was won by one person in Maine with 14 $2 million winners hailing from California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, which has just won its first-ever Mega Millions jackpot,” said Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, Lead Director for the Mega Millions Consortium. “It’s the fourth billion-dollar jackpot in Mega Millions history. We thank all our retailers for their hard work during this spectacular run, and our customers for their enthusiasm and support. I hope the fun and excitement Mega Millions has generated inspires a winning attitude in our daily lives and towards everyone we meet. Here’s to a good year!”

The only Mega Millions jackpot larger than Friday’s prize is the $1.537 billion prize won in South Carolina on Oct. 23, 2018.

The prize is also now the fourth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. Last November’s $2.04 billion prize, taken by a single winner in California, is the largest in U.S. history.The lump sum cash option payout for Friday’s drawing is $707.9 million — before taxes.

Tuesday night’s winning numbers were 7, 13, 14, 15 and 18 and the Mega Ball number was 9.

The most recent Mega Millions jackpot win was at $502 million, shared by winning tickets in California and Florida, on Oct.14.

While no one has claimed the top prize, there have been a total of almost 33.3 million winning tickets sold in the 25 drawings since the jackpot was last won.

Sixteen tickets matched the five white balls to win $1 million on Tuesday, while three people matched all five and played the multiplier to take home $3 million.

ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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(RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif.) — A sheriff’s deputy in Riverside County, California, has been gunned down in the line of duty, leaving behind his pregnant wife, just weeks after another deputy in his department was killed.

Deputy Darnell Calhoun, 30, was shot Friday afternoon while responding to a domestic violence and child custody call in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said at a news conference.

“Dispatch received a call of an unknown trouble — there was voices heard in the background. Sounded like there could possibly be a struggle and deputies responded to the scene,” the sheriff said. “Deputy Calhoun was the first to arrive. At this point, we are not completely sure of the circumstances surrounding the initial contact. The second deputy arriving found our deputy wounded in the street, and a gunfight between the suspect and that deputy ensued.”

The suspect was shot and has been hospitalized in critical condition, Bianco said.

Calhoun joined the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in February 2022 after two years with the San Diego Police Department.

“He’s a husband, a son. He would’ve been a dad,” Bianco said.

Just two weeks ago, on Dec. 29, another Riverside County sheriff’s deputy, Isaiah Cordero, was shot and killed at a traffic stop, according to the department.

He was 32.

Before Cordero was killed, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department hadn’t had a deputy murdered in the line of duty since 2003, the sheriff said.

“Nationwide, we’re confronting these situations with armed individuals, that, over what seemingly seem to be minor disagreements, are willing to engage law enforcement in life and death gun battles,” the sheriff said.

As the department mourns, the sheriff said, “We will get through it. We will hold our heads high. And we will come right back to work to answer another call for service that could put our lives in jeopardy again.”

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(NEW YORK) — A 5-year-old boy was killed when a tree crashed into his parent’s car during a tornado that struck Georgia this week, according to his family.

Egan Jeffcoat was with his mother Tabatha Anglin when the tree fell on the vehicle in Butts County, Georgia, Thursday evening, Lorrie Lloyd, the boy’s grandmother told ABC News.

Anglin was not injured but an unidentified male who was also in the vehicle was seriously injured, according to the authorities.

Several tornadoes formed in the South Thursday evening, killing nine people in Alabama and Georgia and causing a path of destruction in several locations.

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(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Six men have been arrested in a connection with a massive New Year’s Day shootout in which nearly 600 rounds were fired near an apartment complex in Louisville, Kentucky, police announced this week.

Officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department responded to reports of two groups shooting at one another early on Jan. 1, the department said in an update on Friday. Nearly 600 rounds were fired in total by both groups, and multiple firearms were recovered at the scene, police said.

Nearby apartments and several vehicles were struck by gunfire, though no one was shot, police said.

“I’m actually grateful that no one was injured,” Louisville Interim Police Chief Jackie Gwinn-Villaroel told ABC Louisville affiliate WHAS. “But that does not negate the fact that that happened, and that cycle of gun violence is just actually taking root.”

With the assistance of the Louisville division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, detectives were able to identify several people allegedly involved in the shootout through video surveillance, witnesses and an anonymous tipline, police said.

Six men were arrested in connection with the shootout on varied charges including possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and receiving stolen property. Police identified the suspects as Shawn Martin, 25; Dorius Robinson, 19; Tevin Smyzer, 20; Justyn Walls, 19; Brandon Walton, 22; and Nathan Wolz, 42.

Two of the suspects — Walls and Smyzer — were recently arrested on murder charges for a fatal shooting that occurred last month, police said.

It is unclear if the suspects have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.

Detectives also seized eight guns, including three rifles, and two Glock switches, among other evidence, and five stolen vehicles were recovered amid the investigation into the shootout, police said.

The investigation remains open.

Nearly two weeks after the shootout, bulletholes remained on windows and walls of the Enclave apartment complex. The incident left residents shaken, scared and grateful nobody was hurt amid several reported near-misses.

Alena Rhodes, who lives on the second floor, said her boyfriend was almost struck by gunfire inside their apartment, and that a “second” in time made a difference.

“Whenever he hears a pop noise or anything, he literally has a panic attack,” Rhodes told WHAS.

Another tenant told WHAS his roommate was also nearly struck by gunfire inside their apartment.

“My coworkers, when I was telling them about this, they said, ‘Oh, yeah it happens every year,’ having no concern,” the tenant, who wished to remain anonymous, told WHAS. “They’re just too used to it, which is awful to know.”

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(NEW YORK) — Larry Ray, alleged sex trafficker, extortionist and master manipulator of young women and men at Sarah Lawrence College, deserves life in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 20 for unleashing a campaign of terror on his victims, some of whom were college classmates of his daughter, federal prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.

Ray was convicted in April of befriending the students and then, once they were caught in his snare, steadily grooming them, turning them into his slaves, forcing them to engage in labor for his own benefit and the benefit of his relatives, extorting them, and torturing them. He also sex-trafficked one of his victims.

“Lawrence Ray’s crimes were heinous. Over a period of years, he intentionally inflicted brutal and lifelong harm on innocent victims that he groomed and abused into submission,” prosecutors said.

What prosecutors called the Ray Enterprise was formed as early as 2010 when the victims were first targeted. It continued through at least 2020 when he sent messages as part of an effort to keep his victims silent, and — but for the investigation and prosecution — it would have had no logical endpoint, the judge said.

Five victims testified at trial: siblings Santos Rosario, Felicia Rosario, Yalitza Rosario; their mother, Maritza Rosario, and Claudia Drury.

Santos Rosario was a classmate of Larry Ray’s daughter, Talia Ray, at Sarah Lawrence College.

“While the defendant’s victims descended into self-hatred, self-harm, and suicidal attempts under his coercive control, the evidence showed that the defendant took sadistic pleasure in their pain and enjoyed the fruits of their suffering,” the prosecution sentencing submission said.

According to court records, Ray moved into a dorm and inserted himself into the lives of his daughter’s classmates. He read textbooks on psychological manipulation, false confessions, and brainwashing and turned a group of young students — his daughter’s college classmates and their siblings — into his slaves.

Prosecutors said that Ray steadily took over the minds and the bodies of his victims. He induced them to trust him and to believe he was all powerful and all knowing. Having gained their trust and convinced them to accept his lies as their truths, Ray made these impressionable young individuals doubt their own memories and knowledge, cut off relations with all other adults who might otherwise have offered support and guidance, and then — having induced them to manufacture false confessions with which he could threaten them with prison or worse — he forced them to do his bidding.

“He sought to convince his victims that they were worthless, undeserving of love, and irredeemable, and until his arrest in this case, he was succeeding,” prosecutors said. “He has shown no remorse, accepted no responsibility, and impeded the prosecution of this case, including by disrupting the trial and prolonging the trauma to his victims.”

Ray, 63, was convicted of more than a dozen counts including extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, money laundering, and tax evasion.

The defense said he deserves the mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.

“The physical, sexual, and psychological abuse Lawrence Ray suffered as a child and through his young adulthood bears a striking resemblance to the conduct underlying the offenses he now stands convicted of,” defense attorney Marne Lenox said in a sentencing submission. “Mr. Ray’s traumatic childhood experience of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of his own family members undeniably shaped his adulthood.”

Though prosecutors expressed doubt about Ray’s remorse, the defense insisted he understood “the risks inherent to criminal conduct” because he has been incarcerated since his arrest three years ago.

“Mr. Ray not only knows the consequences of his actions, he has lived them. Never will he violate the law and risk the brutal detention that has stripped him of substantial time with his loved ones over the past nearly three years,” Lenox said.

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