Hurricane Hilary, now a Category 4 storm, has prompted flood warnings in Southern California and temporary shelters in Baja California, Mexico.
As Hurricane Hilary heads north, Southern California and Mexico are bracing for a rare and powerful storm that could produce dangerous flash flooding and sustained winds that have not been seen for decades.
Residents are racing to fill sandbags and fuel up generators before extreme weather arrives, and emergency officials are warning that roads may be inundated and setting up evacuation centers.
The Category 4 hurricane is so unusual that it has prompted the National Hurricane Center to issue a tropical storm watch for California for the first time in its history. Hilary is currently projected to make landfall in Baja California on Sunday and move northward as a tropical storm near San Diego and across the deserts and mountains east of Los Angeles — though its path could still veer elsewhere.
In California, the desert and mountain communities are of particular concern. The National Weather Service warned of five to eight inches of rain for the Coachella Valley, about 120 miles east of Los Angeles. The tropical storm could force numerous evacuations and rescues, as well as deadly runoff that may “rage down valleys while increasing susceptibility to rockslides and mudslides,” the agency said.
“The risk in the southeastern deserts is genuinely alarming,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, referring to areas such as Joshua Tree National Park in the southeast part of the state. “We’re talking, in some cases, it will be multiple years’ worth of rainfall.”
As of Friday, Hilary was about 350 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, causing particular worry for the Baja California peninsula. Hilary poses a threat to all of the Mexican state of Baja California, home to 3.8 million residents, local authorities said on Friday during a meeting in Tijuana with reporters and other officials. Catalino Zavala, the state’s secretary general, said that 80 temporary shelters would be available to receive up to 9,000 people.
