Hilary left California. The storm has downgraded to a tropical depression as it advances further into the northeastern United States. Making its way through a densely populated area, the phenomenon has caused record-breaking rainfall, downed trees, caused some landslides, disrupted power supplies and left half a million Los Angeles children without classes. State authorities have not reported any fatalities at this time. The tropical depression will affect the state of Nevada on Monday, where it is expected to leave “historic rainfall” in its wake and “cause rapid flooding that could endanger lives,” according to the National Hurricane Center (CNH). This will be the first tropical storm in history to hit the state where Las Vegas is located.
Around 8:00 a.m. (US Pacific time) the center of the storm was in the Humboldt Forest on the Nevada-Idaho border. The tropical depression was advancing northeast at a rate of 39 kilometers per hour, a rate it will maintain until it fully dissipates, which is scheduled for this afternoon. Hilary is still generating strong winds up to 55 kilometers per hour that can affect northern and central Nevada, western Utah, southern Idaho and southwest Montana. Hilary caused wind gusts of up to 135 kilometers per hour on Black Mountain north of San Diego on Sunday morning.
Palm Springs Mayor Grace Garner reported Monday that the city (100 miles east of Los Angeles) has closed all but one access road. “It was a huge shock that roads are blocked throughout the Coachella Valley, including the state highway. “The cleanup process is going to take a while,” Garner told MSNBC. City council officials assess the damage in one of the cities that has registered the most damage. On Sunday evening, residents of the area reported that the 911 emergency call had failed. This was restored on Monday morning.
The most noticeable effect of Hilary’s journey through Southern California was moderate and heavy rain. According to the weather service, the storm broke virtually all documented daily precipitation records in the area. Heavy rain was recorded in the San Jacinto Mountains, 170 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles, bringing 11 inches of rainfall between Friday and Monday morning, half the annual average. For example, in downtown Los Angeles, rain gauges recorded half of the rain that fell in the area in the past 48 hours during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons.
Los Angeles firefighters responded to more than 4,000 calls for help and responded to 1,800 incidents as of Sunday, according to Kristin Crowley, the city’s department chief. In a press conference this Monday, Crowley confirmed that the fall of some trees caused the power cut. Southern California Edison, the company responsible for the network, reported this morning that it was fixing the outages and that service would be fully restored later Monday. The company estimated that Hilary had about 20,000 users without power as of this morning, 4,000 of whom were in Los Angeles. Local authorities have already sounded the alarm in the region, which is home to more than 10 million people.
Highway 101 was submerged near Palm Springs Monday morning. BRYAN WOOLSTON (Portal)
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The massive amount of water caused flooding and landslides in parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties and in Antelope Valley north of the city of Los Angeles. Emergency services closed a highway traversing this valley on Sunday because the torrent, laden with garbage and debris, posed a hazard to motorists.
Los Angeles School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has reported that students in the metro area will be able to return to classrooms this Tuesday. Hilary forced school officials to suspend classes for nearly half a million students, saying they didn’t have enough time to assess whether the storm had damaged some public schools. Carvalho told CNN on Monday that conditions at the schools were “very good”. About 30 centers (out of more than 700) remained without telephone and internet services. Another school was affected by a mild landslide but was given the green light to return to normal.
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