The storm, driven by the season’s first major atmospheric river, inundated the region, killing at least three people and causing widespread power outages.

A second powerful wind storm, called a "bomb cyclone," will hit the U.S. Pacific Northwest by Thursday evening, even as hundreds of thousands of people remain without power from the torrential rain and snow still falling from the first one.

One of the strongest storms on the West Coast in decades knocked out power for thousands of people, unleashed strong winds that toppled trees and left two dead in Washington before making its way through Oregon to Northern California where on Thursday it dropped heavy snow and record amounts of rain.