Publication Date January 8, 2017 | NBC News

Six dead, travel snarled as storms lash Southeast and West

United States
As traffic creeps past on the New Jersey Turnpike, drivers work on cars stuck in the snow Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, near New Brunswick, N.J. Photo: Mel Evans, AP
As traffic creeps past on the New Jersey Turnpike, drivers work on cars stuck in the snow Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, near New Brunswick, N.J. Photo: Mel Evans, AP

Six people have died and thousands were without power as a brutal winter storm continued to sweep across the U.S. and brought snow and ice to a swath of the Southeast, while strong winds and heavy rained battered parts of the West.

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[A] woman was killed at a golf course in San Ramon, California, after she was struck by a tree that had fallen due to heavy winds Saturday, fire officials told NBC Bay Area.

Parts of northern California and Nevada were filling sandbags as an "atmospheric river" threatened to dump very heavy rains and cause flooding Sunday. More than half of California was under flash flood watches.

In California's Bay Area, residents were hunkering down for expected heavy rains. Flash flood watches were in place for the San Francisco and Monterey Bay region through Sunday night and officials set up sand bag locations.