Hurricane Hilary was heading for Mexico’s Baja California on Saturday, as the US National Hurricane Center forecast “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” for the peninsular and southwestern United States, where it is expected to make landfall as a tropical storm on Sunday.
As far north as Los Angeles, officials scrambled to get the homeless off the streets, set up shelters, and prepared for evacuations.
Hilary is expected to hurtle across the Mexican peninsula on Saturday night and then head north and go down in history books as the first tropical storm in 84 years to batter Southern California.
The US National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm warning for much of Southern California from the Pacific coast to the mountains and deserts inland. Officials spoke of evacuation plans for the Californian island of Catalina.
“I don’t think any of us — I know myself specifically — never thought I’d be standing here talking about a hurricane or a tropical storm,” said Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
After quickly gaining strength early Friday, Hilary slowed somewhat later in the day but remained a severe Category 4 hurricane early Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 km/h), down from 145 mph (230 km/h). H).
Early Saturday, the storm was concentrated about 240 miles (390 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula. It was traveling north-northwest at a speed of 13 miles per hour (20 km/h) and was expected to continue turning north and gaining speed.
The latest forecast indicated that Hilary would make landfall in a sparsely populated area of the Baja Peninsula at a point about 200 miles (330 kilometers) south of the Pacific port city of Ensenada.
It’s then expected to continue north, raising fears the heavy rains could cause dangerous flooding in the border city of Tijuana, where many homes in the city of 1.9 million cling precariously to steep hillsides.
Mayor Montserrat Caballero Ramirez said the city is building four emergency shelters in high-risk areas and is warning people in high-risk areas.
“We are an endangered city because we are on one of the most visited borders in the world and because of our landscape,” she said.
Concern was also growing in the US.
The National Park Service has closed Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve to prevent people from being stranded amid the flooding. Cities across the region, including Arizona, offered sandbags to protect properties from flooding. Major League Baseball has postponed three Sunday games in Southern California, moving them to Saturday as part of split-doubleheaders.
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department officials went out to urge homeless people living in river beds to seek shelter. City authorities provided food, cots, and shelter for people who needed them.
SpaceX has delayed launching a satellite rocket from a base on California’s central coast until at least Monday. The company said Pacific conditions could make it difficult for a ship to recover the rocket booster.
President Joe Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pre-deployed personnel and supplies in the area.
“I urge anyone, anyone who stands in the way of this storm, to take precautions and listen to the direction of state and local officials,” Biden said Friday at Camp David, where he met with leaders Japan and South Korea meets, told reporters.
Officials in Southern California reinforced sand walls designed to protect low-lying coastal communities from winter surf, such as in Huntington Beach, which bills itself as “Surf City USA.”
In nearby Newport Beach, Tanner Atkinson waited in a line of vehicles at a city distribution point for free sandbags.
“I mean, a lot of people here are excited because the waves are getting pretty heavy,” Atkinson said. “But I mean there’s going to be some rain, so there’s usually flooding, landslides and things like that.”
Some schools in Cabo San Lucas were made into temporary shelters, and in La Paz, the scenic Baja California Sur state capital on the Sea of Cortez, police patrolled closed beaches to keep swimmers away from the churning surf. Schools were closed in five communities.
Hilary is increasingly likely to reach California on Sunday while the tropical storm is still strong, although extensive rains are expected as early as Saturday, the San Diego office of the National Weather Service said.
Hurricane officials said the storm could bring torrential rain to the U.S. southwest, dumping 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) in places, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in parts of southern California and southern Nevada.
“Two to three inches of precipitation in Southern California is unusual for this time of year,” said Kristen Corbosiero, a University of Albany atmospheric scientist who specializes in Pacific hurricanes. “That’s a full summer and fall rain load likely to fall in 6 to 12 hours.”
The region could see rain once a century, and there’s a good chance Nevada will break its all-time rainfall record, said Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters and a former hurricane forecaster on board the government.
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