Hurricane Hilary roared toward Mexico’s Baja California peninsula early Sunday as a weakened but still dangerous Category 1 hurricane likely to bring “catastrophic and life-threatening” flooding to the region and cross into the southwestern U.S. as a tropical storm, the National Weather Service said.
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The National Weather Center in Miami said in the most recent advisory at 12 a.m. that the maximum sustained wind speed was 85 mph, down from 90 mph hours earlier. The storm was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Punta Eugenia, Mexico, and 450 miles (720 kilometers) from San Diego, California.
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Hurricane Hilary heads for Baja California peninsula and the southwestern US
(Photo: AFP / NOAA)
One man died in the Baja California Sur state when a family of five was swept away into the sea while crossing a stream, according to a Mexican official, who also shared images of flooded and roads that were swept away in the area.
The last tropical storm to make landfall in southern California was 84 years ago, before the system of naming storms and hurricanes was put into place.
Dangerous rains and coastal storm surges remain a major concern, the National Hurricane Center said, with up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rainfall expected in some regions of Baja California and California.
"Flash and urban flooding, locally catastrophic, is expected, especially in the northern portions of the peninsula," the Miami-based agency said in its latest advisory.
Rainfall of 3 inches to 6 inches, with isolated amounts of 10 inches, was expected across portions of southern California and southern Nevada as well, the NHC added.
"Dangerous to catastrophic flooding is expected," the NHC said.
U.S. President Joe Biden received a briefing from senior staff on preparations for the hurricane and his team's work with state and local agencies ahead of the storm, the White House said.
In the Baja California peninsula, some school and other non-essential activities were canceled through Monday, and authorities in Mexico's second-largest city, Tijuana, urged people in high-risk zones to move to temporary shelters.
Images shared on social media showed flash floods in the coastal town of Santa Rosalia, on the eastern side of the Baja California peninsula, with water gushing down what used to be a road, sweeping away a tree.
Some 30 miles (48 km) south, in the town of Mulege, where the one person died when crossing a stream, Municipal President Edith Aguilar Villavicencio said on her Facebook account that Mexico's Navy and local firefighters were rescuing people.
As of 9 a.m. Israel time, Hilary was about 450 miles south-southeast of San Diego, the NHC said. The storm was moving north-northwest at nearly 20 miles per hour (32 kph), packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 85 mph.
U.S. authorities have warned citizens and businesses to take precautions.
Nearly 200 flights scheduled for Sunday at the San Diego International Airport have been canceled and another 184 on Monday, according to the FlightAware website.
In California, Major League Baseball's Los Angeles-based Dodgers and Angels brought their Sunday games forward to Saturday to turn them into split doubleheaders.
The city's soccer teams, Los Angeles FC and LA Galaxy, both postponed their Sunday matches due to threat of heavy rains and flooding.
The hurricane is the latest major climate disaster to wreak havoc across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Hawaii’s island of Maui is still reeling from last week’s blaze that killed over 100 people and ravaged the historic town of Lahaina, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. In Canada, firefighters on Saturday continued to battle blazes during the nation’s worst fire season on record.