Tropical Storm Hilary swamped Southern California from the coast to the desert resort town of Palm Springs, forcing rescue workers to pull several people from swelling rivers before heading east and inundating a county about 40 miles (64 kilometers) outside of Las Vegas.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded Hilary to a post-tropical storm Monday morning, but warned that “continued life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding” was expected over parts of the U.S. Southwest, along with “record-breaking” rainfall and possible flooding in states as far north as Oregon and Idaho.
Remnants of the storm, which initially brought torrential rain to Mexico’s arid Baja California peninsula and the border city of Tijuana, are expected to last at least into Tuesday morning.
Residents of Southern California struggled with flooded roads, mudslides and downed trees. Winding roads in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles were blocked by mud and debris flows. A section of the I-10 freeway near Palm Springs was also closed to traffic due to water buildup from the storm.
Along the coast, a section of the Pacific Coast Highway in surf-friendly Huntington Beach was also flooded.
“Thank God my family is fine,” Maura Taura said after a three-story tree fell on her daughter’s two cars but missed the family home in the Sun Valley area of Los Angeles.
Hilary is just the latest major weather or climate disaster to wreak havoc across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Hawaii’s island of Maui is still suffering from a fire that killed more than 100 people and devastated the historic city of Lahaina, making it the deadliest wildfire in the US in more than a century. Firefighters in Canada are grappling with the worst fire season on record.
Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit southern California in 84 years. It first made landfall in Baja California on Sunday, in a sparsely populated area about 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Ensenada. One person drowned. It then swept through mudslide-prone Tijuana, threatening the makeshift homes clinging to the slopes south of the US border.
Hilary dropped rain for more than half a year in some areas, including Palm Springs, which received more than three inches of rain Sunday night.
Meteorologists warned of dangerous flash flooding in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and firefighters rescued 13 people from knee-deep water at a homeless encampment on the rising San Diego River. Meanwhile, rain and debris have flooded some streets and people abandoned their cars in standing water. Emergency responders pumped flood water from the Eisenhower Medical Center emergency room in Rancho Mirage.
Sunday was 1.82 inches (4.6 centimeters) the rainiest day on record in San Diego, the NWS said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The previous record was set on August 17, 1977, when 1.8 inches (4.5 centimeters) of rain fell in the area after Hurricane Doreen.
“We’ve basically overturned all of our previous rainfall records,” Elizabeth Adams, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Diego, told The Associated Press. In Palm Springs, flooding broke the daily record of 0.21 inches set in 2003, with 3.18 inches falling on Sunday.
The center of Hilary crossed downtown Los Angeles at 7 p.m. Sunday, according to the regional weather bureau, who described it as “a day for eternity” in Southern California.
Despite the flooding, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said there were no significant injuries or damage reported.
City Council President Paul Krekorian told a news conference, “Los Angeles was tested, but we got through it, and we got through it with minimal impact considering what we’ve been through.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school system in the country, said all campuses were closed Monday, as were other districts in the area. San Diego schools moved the first day of classes from Monday to Tuesday. Grab-and-go locations have been set up for LAUSD students where meals can be provided.
The Palm Springs Police Department said in a statement Sunday that 911 calls were out of service and that in the event of an emergency, residents should text 911 or contact the nearest police or fire station.
The last tropical storm to hit California in September 1939 ripped apart train tracks, tore houses from their foundations and capsized many boats. Almost 100 people lost their lives on land and at sea.
As skies cleared across the state on Monday, the National Weather Service warned of underwater flooding in the Mount Charleston area of Clark County, Nevada, about 40 miles west of Las Vegas. Forecasters said the risk of flooding in states farther north Monday was highest across much of southeastern Oregon into the west-central mountains of Idaho.
In the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Franklin raged near Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Monday, where authorities warned residents to prepare for flooding and landslides. Meteorologists from the National Hurricane Center are also monitoring a disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico that now has an 80 percent chance of developing into a tropical disturbance or storm before hitting the western Gulf Coast on Tuesday. Meteorologists have urged people along the coast of northern Mexico and Texas to monitor the system, adding that tropical storm warnings or warnings could be issued later Monday.
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