SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Southern California is out of the warpath of the so-called weekend “hurriquake,” but officials warned Monday that Tropical Storm Hilary could still bring damage to areas farther north as well as neighboring states.
Rainfall has already begun across the Sacramento Valley and could reach the northern Sierra Nevada before dying down Tuesday, according to a statement from the National Weather Service Office in Sacramento.
“The majority of this rain will fall in the San Joaquin Valley as Hilary moves north,” the service’s Hanford office said.
After several years of drought, the San Joaquin Valley has been hard hit with flooding throughout this past spring. Already the Kern County desert and mountains have received between 3 to 5 inches, putting the region on high flood alert as flood waters recede.
Considered the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, Hilary had already dumped more than 6 inches of rain in some mountain communities Sunday while threatening more than an average year’s rain in inland deserts. San Diego counties broke all-time records for rainfall received in August.
Most of the state remains free of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, aside from the southeast deserts of the Inland Empire — now receiving the brunt of Hilary's effects.
But that much rain moving quickly can be deadly. The National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned people to watch out for flooding throughout mountain areas along the coast northeast of Los Angeles.
“PLEASE ... STAY OFF THE ROADS,” the agency posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. The storm has already caused mud and boulders to spill onto highways, water gushing on roadways and cars getting trapped in floodwaters from Palm Springs across the Coachella Valley.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest school system, has closed all school campuses Monday, and San Diego schools postponed the first day of classes until Tuesday.
California has been in a state of emergency since late Saturday, before Hilary made landfall along the Mexican coast south of Ensenada. After moving through mudslide-prone Tijuana just south of the U.S. border, the storm entered Southern California and Arizona on Sunday. Meteorologists had downgraded Hilary from a Category 4 hurricane to a Category 1 tropical storm before she even reached San Diego, but much of southern California still saw unprecedented levels of rainfall and flash flooding, as did parts of Nevada and western Arizona.
Southern California is also reeling from an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 near Ojai, about 80 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Smaller aftershocks followed but there have not been any immediate reports of major damage or injury, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
Governor Newsom met Sunday with communities across Southern California, including the Inland Empire and Desert areas, while issuing additional emergency orders to expand resource centers open during the storm.
The state Operations Center at the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is activated 24/7 and coordinating with other agencies to prepare for tornadoes, earthquakes and earthquake aftershocks. The governor’s office said that the Flood Operations Center is providing hundreds of thousands of sandbags, water rescue teams and firefighting teams, while medical assistance teams will help support evacuations and medical needs in communities impacted by flooding. The state is coordinating with retailers like Target and Wal-Mart to ensure that grocers can provide essential supplies, and with Uber to coordinate free emergency transportation services to open shelter locations.
Meanwhile, Caltrans is installing pumps in flood-prone areas and monitoring burn scars for potential mudslides — particularly in northern Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
As of Monday California has 20 partial state park closures and 23 full closures, and all state beaches in San Diego and Orange Counties remain closed Monday. A flash flood warning remains in effect for many areas of Southern California. Emergency officials are already warning of similar concerns further north, as Glenn County reports heavy rain over the August Complex burn scar and Mendocino National Forest could cause mudslides and debris by Monday evening.
The last time a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 40 to 60 mph, reached landfall in the western United States was 1997 in the Imperial Valley of California, according to Alex Tardy, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Diego.
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