This is the carnage storms have inflicted on California

Multi-million dollar beach homes battered by winds, cars swallowed up by sinkholes, and over a dozen people killed - after weeks of extreme storms, California is at a breaking point.

The state's famously sunny southern coast has been battered by storm after storm since the December holidays, eroding roads, felling trees and causing landslides.

As of Tuesday evening, at least 17 people had died in weather-related incidents since the storms began, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

More than 22 million people are currently under flood watch, according to the National Weather Service - almost as many as the population of Australia - and thousands have had to evacuate.

In Santa Cruz County, south of San Francisco, Rachel Oliveria told NBC what it was like to watch a river overflow and flood her home.

"It just came really quick," she said. "Within a matter of minutes, it was from across the street all the way into our yard, and it went really fast."

While it is normal to have wet weather during the winter months, weather expert Andrea Bair, a climate services programme manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), said the "parade of storms" that has walloped the state is unusually intense.

Weather phenomena like atmospheric rivers and bomb cyclones, combined with heavy winds, have packed repeated punches.

Although it is too early to say what has caused this bad run of weather, Ms Blair said climate change would make extreme weather more and more common.

The successive storms have compounded the damage - as soil moisture increases, flooding becomes more likely. As trees are damaged repeatedly, they become more likely to fall. Areas can also become more susceptible to landslides and sinkholes.

All told, Noaa estimates the storms could cost the state $1bn in damage and clean-up.

The state does not look like it will get a break anytime soon. More storms are expected this weekend and into next week, Ms Blair said. Although they may be milder than the storms from the past weekend and Monday, the repeated destruction means they will likely still cause a lot of damage.

"It really isn't going to take a lot of rain or you know those extreme strong winds to really cause havoc," Ms Blair said. "It's the repetitiveness of this storm after storm after storm that is the reason why we're where we are at today."