MARINA DEL REY, Calif. − The remnants of Hurricane Hilary lashed the U.S. Southwest from the mountains and desert to the Pacific Ocean beaches Monday, the storm downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone after triggering mudslides, flooding and water rescues across Southern California.
Rain and debris washed out roadways and left vehicles stranded in standing water. In Rancho Mirage, 120 miles east of Los Angeles, crews pumped floodwaters out of the Eisenhower Medical Center. In San Diego, rescue teams pulled 13 people from knee-deep water in a homeless encampment along the rising San Diego River.
The storm remained capable of “life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding” for parts of the U.S. Southwest, the National Weather Service warned.
The weather service said the storm was centered about 400 miles north of San Diego early Monday, driving sustained winds of 35 mph as it spread across Nevada. Hilary could produce another 2 to 4 inches of rain in many areas, and isolated areas across portions of Southern California and Southern Nevada could see up to 12 inches through Monday, the weather service said.
As the storm rolls north, parts of Oregon and Idaho could get hit with up to 5 inches of rain through Tuesdaymorning, resulting in some “significant” flash flooding, the weather service said. But Southern California was not free of Hilary’s wrath.
“Across interior Southern California, road and rail line closures due to major flooding, washouts and mudslides are likely, putting a significant strain on infrastructure,” said Dan DePodwin, AccuWeather director of forecasting operations.
Tropical Storm Hilary updates:Storm drenches Southern California, prompting floods, rescues
Developments:
∎ Large swells will continue to affect Southern California through Monday morning, likely causing life-threatening surf and rip tides, the weather service said.
∎ Preliminary 36-hour rainfall from southern Nevada shows that Bristlecone, west of Las Vegas, was doused in 6 inches of rain, breaking the rainfall record for a tropical cyclone or remnant for the state.
∎ San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria declared a state of emergency. The 1.82 inches of rainfall the city received Sunday was the most of any day this year and the most in a day for San Diego since 2.34 inches fell on Feb. 27, 2017.
Palm Springs could get a year’s worth of rain in 2 days
In the desert 100 miles east of Los Angeles, Palm Springs had been deluged by more than 3 inches of rain by Monday morning. Almost an inch of rain fell in one hour Sunday afternoon in a city that typically picks up less than half an inch all summer, AccuWeather said. Palm Springs averages less than 6 inches of rain a year and could get that in 48 hours, AccuWeather said.
The city of Palm Springs declared an emergency “due to unprecedented rainfall in flooding of local roadways and at least one swift water rescue.”
Hilary was first tropical storm to hit region in 26 years
The storm began as a hurricane before making landfall Sunday as a tropical storm along Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. The storm moved through Tijuana before it became the first tropical storm to cross into California from Mexico since Nora in 1997, the weather service office in San Diego said Sunday.
If Hilary had come in off the ocean in a landfall in California, it would have been the first tropical storm to do so since 1939.
The storm was forecast to disspate late Monday.
Tropical Storm Emily takes shape but may not last long
What began as a large area of low pressure off the Cabo Verde Islands has become well-defined enough to earn a name and designation. Tropical Storm Emily, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, was heading west-northwest in the Atlantic Ocean at nearly 10 mph Sunday. However, Emily was expected to weaken and lose its status as a tropical storm in the coming days.
Contributing: Eve Chen, Ken Tran, Claire Thornton, Jordan Mendoza and Dinah Pulver, USA TODAY; Kate Franco, Palm Springs Desert Sun; The Associated Press
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