Tropical Storm Hilary cleanup efforts are in full swing across Southern California after historic torrential rains and damaging winds devastated the region.
Cathedral City in California’s Coachella Valley is among the hardest hit areas. Residents are armed with rubber boots and tools to dig up the thick mud left behind by the storm.
Officials have worked tirelessly to clear the mud and debris left behind by unprecedented rain, which swallowed cars and flooded homes.
Rescue efforts to recover those stranded during the unprecedented weather conditions continue as images emerge of elderly residents being hauled to safety by large tractors.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Monday the storm cell had lost much of its strength en route to the Rocky Mountains, but warned that “life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding” could still occur.
Tropical Storm Hilary cleanup efforts are in full swing across Southern California after historic torrential rains and damaging winds devastated the region
Cathedral City in California’s Coachella Valley is among the hardest hit areas. Residents are armed with rubber boots and tools to dig up the thick mud left behind by the storm
Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, triggering flood watches and alerts in half a dozen states.
The risk of flooding in states farther north was highest across much of southeastern Oregon into the central-western mountains of Idaho, with a risk of local thunderstorms and torrential rain Tuesday.
Heading east into Nevada, flood, power outage and boiling water warnings were issued for the nearly 400 homes in Mount Charleston, about 40 miles west of Las Vegas, where the only access and exit road was flooded.
Hilary first struck Mexico’s arid Baja California peninsula as a hurricane, causing one death and widespread flooding before weakening into a tropical storm and moving north.
Hilary flooded streets, downed power lines and triggered mudslides across Southern California Monday after it unleashed record-breaking overnight rain. So far, however, no deaths related to the storm have been recorded in the United States.
The weather system dropped 4 to 5 inches of rain on coastal areas and 10 inches or more in the mountains, National Weather Service meteorologist Richard Thompson told Portal.
In areas more used to drought, flash floods tore through desert plains and mountain canyons, inundating roads.
Rain clouds gave way to clearer skies on Monday as the storm moved north.
Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, triggering flood monitors and alerts in half a dozen states — an American flag can be seen in the flood waters
The weather system dropped 4 to 5 inches of rain on coastal areas and 10 inches or more in the mountains, said National Weather Service meteorologist Richard Thompson, which was evident from the large pools of water that remained
For Ronald Mendiola, however, the storm was still terrifying. His family of five, including a two-year-old, fled to the roof of their home in the desert town of Cathedral City when the lower floor flooded waist-deep to the adults just after midnight.
“The roof was our best protection.” “Five of us with a 2 1/2 year old baby,” Mendiola told the outlet while trudging through knee-deep mud in his neighborhood after the storm passed.
“We actually made it to safety when a Good Samaritan came by and picked us up.” “All five off the roof.”
The remains of Hilary were expected to follow heavy rains in Nevada and Utah and the Northwest, where flooding threatened more than 4 million people through Monday night, the service said.
“Fortunately, Californians listened to their local officials and took the necessary precautionary measures to protect themselves and their families,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The storm caused flash flooding in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles and inundated more populated coastal areas of Ventura County northwest of the city. Inland desert towns around the resort town of Palm Springs were also bombed.
In Cathedral City, a neighboring town of Palm Springs about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, people raked up debris Monday and surveyed the damage after water was thigh-deep in some areas, witnesses said.
“Who has flood insurance in the desert?” said Nancy Ross, a resident of the Canyon Mobile Home in Cathedral City, where several homes were damaged by flooding.
Ross told local reporters she was “really worried” during the storm because “it flowed like a river.”
In Cathedral City, a neighboring town of Palm Springs about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, people raked up debris Monday and surveyed the damage after water was thigh-deep in some areas
The Weather Service reported Sunday’s record rain for August 20 fell across southern California in places including downtown Los Angeles and at airports in Burbank and Santa Barbara.
In the midst of the storm, a 5.1-magnitude earthquake also struck north of Los Angeles on Sunday, generating the social media meme #hurriquake.
Videos circulated around the internet in which one woman captured the moment she was in the pool with a man and another showed a wine vendor dropping hundreds of bottles that fell to the ground in the tremor.
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.
South Texas was also preparing for the arrival of a separate tropical system that should bring much-needed rain but also possible flooding.
The National Hurricane Center said tropical storms could hit coastal areas through early Tuesday, including near the U.S.-Mexico border, where some residents were grabbing sandbags in preparation.