Hilary batters Southern California, remnants of storm threaten Oregon and Idaho
Terry and Jack Flanigan walk their dogs past a eucalyptus tree that fell on a house in Palm Desert, Calif., on Monday. Tropical storm Hilary drenched Southern California from the coast to the desert resort city of Palm Springs, forcing rescuers to pull several people from swollen rivers. (Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press)Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, swept people into swollen rivers, toppled trees onto homes and flooded roadways as the massive system marched northward on Monday, prompting flood watches and warnings in more than a half dozen states.The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hilary had lost much of its steam and only vestiges of the storm were heading over the Rocky Mountains, but it warned that "continued life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding" was expected over portions of the southwestern United States, along with record-breaking rainfall.There was the potential of flooding in states as far north as Oregon an
Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, swept people into swollen rivers, toppled trees onto homes and flooded roadways as the massive system marched northward on Monday, prompting flood watches and warnings in more than a half dozen states.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hilary had lost much of its steam and only vestiges of the storm were heading over the Rocky Mountains, but it warned that "continued life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding" was expected over portions of the southwestern United States, along with record-breaking rainfall.
There was the potential of flooding in states as far north as Oregon and Idaho. Remnants of the storm were expected to linger at least through Tuesday morning.
Hilary, which first slammed into Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula as a hurricane that caused one death and widespread flooding, was one of several potentially catastrophic natural events affecting California on Sunday. Besides the tropical storm, which produced tornado warnings, there were wildfires and a moderate earthquake north of Los Angeles.
So far, no deaths, serious injuries or extreme damage have been reported in the state, though officials warned that risks remain — especially in the desert and mountainous regions because of swollen waterways and the wet hillsides that could unleash mudslides.
Hilary is just the latest major weather or climate disaster to wreak havoc across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The Hawaiian island of Maui is still reeling from a blaze that killed more than 100 people and ravaged the historic town of Lahaina, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, while firefighters in Canada are battling the worst fire season on record.
Residents recount close calls
Terry Flanigan was inside her home in Palm Desert, Calif., after taking pictures of the unusual rainfall when she said she heard a huge crash and a deafening thud.
She then received a text from a neighbour who said a eucalyptus tree, more than 30 metres tall, had just fallen onto a condo across the street.
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Flanigan, who called 911, said she later learned it landed on the bed of her neighbour's 11-year-old son, who luckily was in another room.
"I'm sure they're still terrified," she said, adding that the mother and boy had gone to stay with relatives. "Removal crews came this morning and took off the branches, and it was very unnerving. Oh my gosh, what could have happened."
Maura Taura said she felt a similar relief after a three-storey-tall tree crashed down on her daughter's two cars but missed the family's house in the Sun Valley area of Los Angeles.
"Thank God my family is OK," she said.
Storm blows past rainfall record
Death Valley National Park received a full year's worth of rain in one day and remained closed indefinitely. About 400 people were being sheltered at Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs until roads could be made passable, park officials said.
Rain came in two bursts on Sunday — in the morning and evening — totalling 5.6 centimetres at a National Weather Service rain gauge at Furnace Creek. If verified, it would be the single-rainiest day in the area's history, beating its record of 4.3 centimetres set Aug. 5, 2022.
Hot water and hot air were both crucial factors that enabled the storm's rapid growth — steering it on an unusual but not quite unprecedented path that dumped 10 months of rain in just one day in some normally bone-dry places, like Palm Springs.
#Hilary brought record rainfall to Srn CA and Srn Sierra and into Srn NV with rainfall amounts of 1-8 inches above average for the month-to date or more than 350% of average for the month to date (8/21). #cawx #nvwx pic.twitter.com/vCtzoO4Xv5
—@NWSCNRFCSunday was the wettest day on record in San Diego, with 4.6 centimetres of rain, the National Weather Service said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The previous record was set on Aug. 17, 1977, when 4.5 centimetres of rain fell in the area after Hurricane Doreen.
"We basically blew all of our previous rainfall records out of the water," National Weather Service meteorologist Elizabeth Adams in San Diego told The Associated Press.
The water rose knee-high in a homeless encampment along the rising San Diego River, where fire officials rescued 13 people. Farther north, crews pumped floodwaters out of the emergency room at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage.
In the San Bernardino Mountains, about 800 residents were ordered to shelter in place on Monday in the communities of Forest Falls, Oak Glen, Angelus Oaks and Seven Oaks because of mud blocking roads and driveways, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Alison Hesterly. Work to clear the roads has been underway since late Sunday afternoon.
In the mountain community of Oak Glen, about 120 kilometres east of Los Angeles, Brooke Horspool worked to free a couple, including an elderly man with medical issues, from a house surrounded by about 1.2 metres of mud since a slide on Sunday.
"We have shovels and we're going to go try and find a friend that has a Bobcat," he said, referring to a brand of small earth-moving machines.
The wet weather might stave off wildfires for a few weeks in Southern California and in parts of the Sierra Nevada, but widespread rain is not expected in the most fire-prone areas spanning from Northern California to British Columbia, said University of California climate scientist Daniel Swain in an online briefing Monday.
'Minimal impacts' compared to historic storm
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest school system, said all campuses would be closed on Monday, as did districts across the region. San Diego schools postponed the first day of classes from Monday to Tuesday.
The centre of Hilary passed over downtown Los Angeles at 7 p.m. on Sunday, according to the regional weather office, which called it "a day for the ages" in Southern California.
"Los Angeles was tested, but we came through it, and we came through it with minimal impacts considering what we endured," Paul Krekorian, president of the city council, said.
A tropical storm last roared into California in September 1939, ripping apart train tracks, tearing houses from their foundations and capsizing many boats. Nearly 100 people were killed on land and at sea.
As Hilary moved east into the neighbouring state of Nevada, flooding was reported, power was out and a boil-water order for about 400 households was issued in the Mount Charleston area, about 64 kilometres west of Las Vegas.
The only road in and out of Mount Charleston was washed out, and Nevada National Guard troops were sent into the area with trucks after a disaster declaration by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo on Sunday. A shelter was opened for residents.
Forecasters said the threat for flooding in states farther north on Monday was highest across much of southeastern Oregon into the west-central mountains of Idaho.
The forecast calls for potential thunderstorms and localized torrential rains on Tuesday, said Jackson Macfarlane, a meteorologist with the weather service in Boise, Idaho.
In the Caribbean, meanwhile, tropical storm Franklin churned on Monday near Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where authorities warned residents to prepare for floods and landslides.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said another storm could develop and reach the Gulf of Mexico coastline on Tuesday.
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