[8] Fueled by the Pineapple Express, an atmospheric river originating in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands, the storm was the strongest to affect California since January 2010.[12] Late on November 30, 2014, a weak extratropical disturbance developed at the southern end of a cold front, to the northwest of Midway Island, near the International Date Line.During the next several days, the system gradually absorbed other incoming storms and began to rapidly intensify, attaining a minimum low pressure of 963 mbar (28.4 inHg) on December 9.The massive winter storm dropped large amounts of rain across California, and the system also brought powerful winds to parts of the state.On December 17, the system developed a secondary low over New Jersey, at the end of an occluded front, even as the main circulation continued to slowly move eastward.[23] That day, rain from the storm in Brooklyn, combined with a poor roof, lead to an NBA game at Barclays Center being delayed 30 minutes to clean up the mess.[30] On December 21, Freia underwent explosive intensification and became a bomb cyclone, dropping 30 mbars within 34 hours, attaining a minimum low pressure of 960 millibars (28 inHg).[32] On December 24, Freia moved slightly to the west and weakened to a 990 mbar system, while the other 2 fragments of the storm continued to accelerate eastward across Norway, Sweden, and Finland.The storm claimed two victims in Oregon, killed by falling trees, and left 150,000 households without power across the San Francisco Bay Area.[3] In the late morning of December 11, a tree felled by a tremendous gust of wind severely damaged the Social Hall of St Theresa Catholic Church in South Lake Tahoe, CA (El Dorado County).