California prepares for Hurricane Hilary
Tropical Storm Hilary is hammering California with “life-threatening” floods after making landfall in Mexico on Sunday and making its way up the West Coast into the southern US.
The storm – the first tropical storm to hit California since Nora in 1997 – is causing chaos across southern California, flooding streets and roads, downing power lines and plunging homes into darkness.
Los Angeles and San Diego are under tropical storm warnings with officials warning residents to shelter away from “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding”.
In Palm Springs, officials revealed that the storm had knocked out its 911 emergency phone system on Sunday night, while two people had to be rescued from floodwaters in Ventura County. A search was initially under way for a third person before officials said there was no one else believed to be in the river.
As California began bracing for the worst of the storm on Sunday afternoon, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake also struck in Ventura County.
Hurricane Hilary had weakened into a tropical storm before making landfall in the Baja California peninsula of Mexico on Sunday. At least one person was killed in the region after being swept away in floodwaters.
