Communities in Southern California are cleaning up after record rainfall from Tropical Storm Hilary brought flooding and mudslides. Carter Evans reports.
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Tropical Storm Hilary moved through Southern California overnight after making landfall in Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Sunday. It’s been decades since a tropical storm hit California, and it brought record rainfall, flooding and mudslides. Carter Evans reports.
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Hilary had strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane before weakening to a tropical storm prior to making landfall. The storm is still expected to bring heavy rainfall along its path from Sunday afternoon into Monday morning, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
“The potentially historic amount of rainfall is expected to cause life-threatening to catastrophic flash, urban, and arroyo flooding including landslides, mudslides, and debris flows through early Monday morning,” NHC said.
Tropical storm conditions, including gusty winds, were expected to begin on Sunday afternoon in parts of the Southwestern U.S., according to NHC. Large swells generated by Hilary, which can cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions will affect portions of Southern California over the next two days, the center warned.
Where is flooding expected?
Rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches, with isolated amounts of 10 inches, are expected across portions of Southern California and southern Nevada, according to the NHC.
In Nevada, officials remain concerned about dangerous flooding across the western Mojave Desert, which is at high risk for flash flooding, “an exceedingly rare occurrence,” NWS Las Vegas said Sunday on social media.
⚠️Flood Advisory⚠️until 3 pm PDT for parts of southern Nye and southern Inyo County. Hourly rain rates up to 0.25″. Do not attempt to cross flooded roadways! Turn around, don’t drown. #nvwx#cawxpic.twitter.com/a47vxiuFmt
In California, evacuation orders have been issued for San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Evacuation warnings were issued in Orange County, according to CBS News Los Angeles
Meanwhile, the Inland Empire and mountains are at a high risk of flash flooding, with some communities expected to get 6-10 inches of rain, according to CBS Los Angeles.
How is Southern California preparing for Hilary?
As of 11 p.m. ET, Hilary had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. Although no longer a hurricane, the system was still bringing heavy rainfall to the area.
It is the first time that the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning for Southern California, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.
President Biden on Sunday said he has asked FEMA to deploy personnel and supplies to California. Mr. Biden also said the Coast Guard has pre-positioned aircraft to allow for rapid response and rescue efforts.
“My Administration also deployed federal personnel to Nevada to ensure the state has additional support, and we will continue to coordinate with California, Nevada, and Arizona on any resources they might need,” Biden said.
Evacuees from Catalina Island arrive in Long Beach, California, after leaving due to Hurricane Hilary. Aug. 19, 2023.
Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Los Angeles County officials said Sunday they were expecting 1 to 3 inches of rain and wind speeds of 20 to 30 mph.
“We are ready,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told “Face the Nation.”
The tropical storm warning, which was upgraded Friday night from what was also the first-ever tropical storm watch for the region, was in effect for most of Southern California, including large swaths of San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties, along with California’s Catalina Island, according to the National Weather Service.
L.A. County officials on Saturday were advising all Catalina residents and visitors to leave the island as soon as possible ahead of the storm’s arrival.
On Sunday evening, Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the country, announced all schools, campuses and after-school programs would be closed Monday due to the storm.
“This was not an easy decision,” the district said on social media. “Los Angeles Unified acknowledges the unique, unprecedented nature of Tropical Storm Hilary, which has garnered city, county, and state declarations of emergency.”
The California Department of Parks and Recreation on Saturday ordered a temporary closure of all San Diego and Orange County state beaches and several state parks.
Disneyland announced Saturday that parks would be closing early Sunday, with Disney California Adventure Park closing at 9 p.m., Disneyland Park closing at 10 p.m. and the Downtown Disney District will close at 11 p.m.
The San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels all moved their scheduled Sunday home games to Saturday double-headers in anticipation of the storm.
When will Hilary hit Las Vegas?
Hilary’s winds will continue to weaken as it moves through Southern California, and although the storm was moving north-northwest Monday evening, it was expected to bring strong rains to parts of southwestern Nevada.
Nevada will see heavy rain into Monday morning with likely flooding in Las Vegas, and “significant flooding” in Death Valley National Park, the Weather Channel reported.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency Sunday afternoon due to the “imminent impact” of Tropical Storm Hilary across the state.
“Significant damage to public and private property are likely, including multiple transportation routes,” the declaration read.
This comes days after he announced that 100 National Guard troops had been activated ahead of the tropical storm.
Washington — FEMA’s disaster fund could dry up within weeks and delay the federal response to natural disasters, the agency’s administrator warned Sunday.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told “Face the Nation” that the agency is watching its disaster relief fund “very closely” ahead of hurricane season and that some recovery projects that are not life-saving measures could be delayed into the next fiscal year if funding falls short.
“Our estimates do still say that we may have a depletion of our fund — now it’s pushed into the middle of September,” Criswell said. “And as we get closer to that, I mean, this is a day-by-day monitoring of the situation.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were 15 weather or climate disaster events this year before Aug. 8, with each causing more than $1 billion in damage. The tally does not include the recent wildfires on Maui, which decimated Lahaina, causing an estimated $6 billion in damage to the coastal city. The peak of hurricane season is not until Sept. 11.
President Biden asked Congress earlier this month for $12 billion to replenish the disaster fund to address the response to the wildfires and other natural disasters. Congress is on recess until after Labor Day.
Criswell said that amount may not be enough.
“The $12 billion was going to be able to cover some of the immediate needs that we were going to need to get through this fiscal year,” she said. “As we’re continuing to see the increasingly severe weather events that dollar amount may need to go up as we go into next fiscal year.”
Criswell is traveling with Mr. Biden to Maui on Monday to view the devastation and meet with survivors.
“The biggest thing that the president needs to see is just the actual impact,” Criswell said of the importance of the visit. “It really feels different when you’re on the ground and can see the total devastation of Lahaina. He’ll talk to some of the families that have been impacted by this and hear their stories.”
“He’s really going to be able to, one, bring hope to this community, but also reassure them that the federal government is there,” she said. “He has directed them to bring the resources they need to help them as they begin to start their recovery and their rebuilding process.”
While FEMA responds to the wildfires, it is also preparing for the “really significant impacts” of Tropical Storm Hilary on Southern California, Criswell said.
“We had a lot of staff already on the ground. We are moving in some additional resources to make sure that we can support anything that California might need, but they’re a very capable state as well and they have a lot of resources,” she said. “So if it does exceed what their capability is, we’re going to have additional search-and-rescue teams, commodities on hand to be able to go in and support anything that they might ask for.”
This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Palm Springs Mayor Grace Garner discuss preparations for Hilary as the National Hurricane Center issued its first-ever tropical storm warning for the area; plus FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell.
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Hurricane Hilary is expected to hit Southern California as a tropical storm, with a punch that could include flash flooding and significant amounts of rain, according to the National Hurricane Center.
A tropical storm watch for much of Southern California was issued Friday morning. The National Weather Service’s San Diego outpost said this was the first time such an advisory had ever been issued for the region.
“It is rare — indeed nearly unprecedented in the modern record — to have a tropical system like this move through Southern California,” Greg Postel, a hurricane and storm specialist at the Weather Channel, told CBS News.
How rare is a hurricane on the West Coast?
When was the last time a tropical storm hit Southern California?
The last time a tropical storm made landfall in California was 84 years ago — before there was a system of naming storms.
The 1939 storm, called El Cordonazo, became the first and only tropical storm to make landfall in the state in the 20th century, according to the National Weather Service. NWS says the storm, which was at one point a hurricane, originated off the southern coast of Central America before moving north and eventually coming ashore at San Pedro, California.
Resulting floods from the storm killed at least 45 people across the Southern California region and caused $2 million in damage to structures and crops, the weather service reports. Another 48 people were also killed at sea. Cities across the Southern California region experienced torrential rains because of the tropical storm — Los Angeles, for example, saw 5.24″ in just 24 hours.
“Californians were generally unprepared and were alerted to their vulnerability to tropical storms,” NWS said of the storm in its report about significant weather events in Southern California. The weather bureau established a forecast office in Southern California in 1940 after the disaster.
Has California ever had a hurricane?
Other powerful storms have hit Southern California, including a hurricane in 1858 that hit San Diego with 75 mph winds — what would now be considered a Category 1. The hurricane, which caused extensive wind damage, is considered the only actual hurricane to hit the West Coast, according to National Weather Service.
In 1997, NWS says Hurricane Linda in the Pacific became the strongest storm recorded in the region, with 180 mph winds and 218 mph gusts. However, it didn’t make landfall in California, but as a nearby tropical storm it did cause heavy rain and thunderstorms in the area.
That hurricane occurred during an El Niño, which is a weather pattern that is caused when warmer water in the Pacific Ocean effects the jet stream, making it move south. This phenomenon can bring heavy rainfall and flooding to California and drier and warmer weather to the northern U.S. and Canada. The pattern also affects the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southwest, bringing wetter weather than usual.
California started 2023 with a barrage of storms up and down its coast. A New Year’s Eve storm brought record rainfall and landslides to Northern California. In the weeks that followed, a series of storms caused by atmospheric rivers hit the sate.
Atmospheric rivers are long regions in the atmosphere that transport water and can cause significant flooding. About eight atmospheric rivers hit the state between Dec. 26 and Jan. 14, Gov. Gavin Newson said at the time. Many of the storms caused severe flooding, risks of mudslides and evacuations.
The severe weather continued into March and grew more intense when winter storms buried areas of the state — like Yosemite National Park — in record-breaking snowfall.
By May, it was estimated the storms had swamped 150,000 acres in California’s Central Valley, destroying crops in the region responsible for producing a quarter of the nation’s food, according to numbers from Kings County officials.
Where and when will Hurricane Hilary make landfall?
On Friday morning, Hilary was off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, according to the Weather Channel. Hilary grew from a tropical storm to a Category 3 on Wednesday, and then a Category 4 on Thursday. It was expected to continue its path to Southern California and weaken back to a tropical storm — with the remnants still expected to bring flash flooding and gusty winds.
The Los Angeles Basin and the desert Southwest are expected to feel its impact over the weekend, with heavy rainfall in the area starting Friday and “peaking on Sunday and Monday,” according to the National Hurricane Center.. Hilary will continue to drench parts of California early next week while weakening.
How can Californians prepare for Hilary?
According to the National Weather Service, all people living along the coast are at risk of being affected by a hurricane or a tropical storm brewing in their region. The best thing those residents can do is prepare ahead of time.
That preparation includes developing an evacuation and communication plan, stocking up on disaster supplies, preparing your home by cutting down vulnerable trees, and staying up to date on weather forecasts and warnings. Homeowners may want to consider installing a generator and storm shutters, and check your home’s insurance status.
Hurricane Hilary strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane Thursday night, the National Weather Service said.
The hurricane is expected to hit Southern California with heavy rainfall as early as this weekend after it makes its way up Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula.
Forecasters said the storm is expected to produce 3 to 6 inches of rainfall, with maximum amounts of 10 inches, across portions of Baja California through Sunday night, with the possibility of flash flooding.
There will likely be “damaging wind gusts,” especially at higher elevations, in the area, and swells along the coast, Greg Postel, a hurricane and storm specialist at the Weather Channel, told CBS News.
Hurricane Hilda off the Mexican coast early on August 18, 2023.
National Hurricane Center / NOAA
The storm, which isn’t expected to still be a hurricane by the time it reaches California, is forecast to impact the southwestern U.S. with heavy rainfall starting Friday through early next week, “peaking on Sunday and Monday,” according to the National Hurricane Center.
“It is rare — indeed nearly unprecedented in the modern record — to have a tropical system like this move through Southern California,” Postel told CBS News.
The last time Southern California was hit by a tropical storm was in 1939, before storms were given names, CBS News senior weather and climate producer David Parkinson said. Several storms that had been hurricanes or tropical storms have impacted the state since then, but they had weakened to sub-tropical systems by that time, Parkinson noted.
The projected path of the storm showed it could make landfall anywhere from the Baja California Peninsula to as far north as Santa Barbara, California. One model showed the heaviest rain hitting the Palm Springs area after the storm makes landfall.
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