California Braces for Record-Tying El Niño Storms

In Glendora, California, residents like Eric Dickens are stocking up on sandbags as powerful storms are set to drench the city and parts of the state.

"I don't know how bad it is but I want to get ahead of the game and not get caught up cause you can't catch up with water,' Dickens said.

And this is proof: one resident's backyard in Wildomar, California, turned into a waterfall after torrential rains pounded the area. Back-to-back storms in the Pacific are expected to bring even more rains for the West over the next 16 days.

All this thanks to an El Niño weather system that's now the strongest on record since 1998 and could turn into one of the most powerful when all is said and done.

In San Diego, cell phone video captures this scene at the height rains this week: Parts of the city flooded, trapping at least one person in a car that became surrounded by high water.

By nightfall, residents like Nicole Clark were left stunned as she was left standing in the middle of a flooded street next to her car.

"I've had my camera and I've been walking around but this street here if you look, all of the cars are completely submerged. They can't drive, they can't move."

Los Angeles officials aren't taking any chances, raising the alert level and gearing up for what they believe could be the first of many El Niño storm systems this winter.

"We'll be watching as the weather progresses overnight and we will have additional patrols out there," Bob Spencer, with the L.A. County's Public Works Department, said.

And it's not just California. The effects of El Niño have already been felt as many Americans experienced unseasonably warm temperatures during Christmas, followed by deadly flooding in southern states and the mid-west.

Meanwhile, a polar vortex is expected to bring widespread cold and snow across central and eastern United States mid-January.

Overseas, countries in South and Central America have seen their worst floods in 50 years because of El Niño. And in parts of Africa, aid experts are warning that drought conditions could leave tens of millions of people without food and water this year.

But for now, all eyes are on California as officials across the state are telling residents to clear gutters as two storms are expected to hit Wednesday and Thursday, bringing as much as three inches of rain.