SAN DIEGO — Tropical Storm Hilary inundated streets across Mexico's arid Baja California Peninsula with deadly floodwaters Sunday before moving over Southern California, where it swamped roads and downed trees, as concerns mounted that flash floods could strike in places as far north as Idaho that rarely get such torrential rain.
Forecasters said Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, bringing flash floods, mudslides, high winds, power outages and the potential for isolated tornadoes.
Hilary made landfall along the Mexican coast in a sparsely populated area about 150 miles south of Ensenada, then moved through mudslide-prone Tijuana.
A vehicle drives through a flooded freeway entrance Sunday in Palmdale, Calif., as a tropical storm moves into the area.
At least 9 million people were under flash-flood watches and warnings as heavy rain fell across normally sunny Southern California ahead of the brunt of the storm.
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The National Weather Service's Los Angeles office reported in the evening on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “very heavy rain” was continuing in much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The highest rainfall totals so far were 6.15 inches at Leona Valley and 5.94 inches at Lewis Ranch, the agency added, saying there was significant flooding and urging people to stay off the roads.
Mud and boulders spilled onto highways, water overwhelmed drainage systems and tree branches fell in neighborhoods from San Diego to Los Angeles. Dozens of cars were trapped in floodwaters in Palm Springs and surrounding desert communities across the Coachella Valley. Crews pumped floodwaters out of the emergency room at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage.
A worker blocks off Pico Boulevard after a tree fell Sunday in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest school system, said all campuses would be closed on Monday. "There is no way we can compromise the safety of a single child or an employee, and our inability to survey buildings, our inability to determine access to schools makes it nearly impossible for us to open schools," Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said at a media briefing. San Diego schools postponed the first day of classes from Monday to Tuesday.
Southern California got another surprise in the afternoon as an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 hit near Ojai, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was felt widely and was followed by smaller aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury, according to a dispatcher with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.
Hilary could wallop other Western states with once-in-a-century rains, with a good chance of it becoming the wettest known tropical cyclone to douse Nevada, Oregon and Idaho. Hilary was expected to remain a tropical storm into central Nevada early Monday before dissipating.
Vehicles cross over a flood control basin that has almost reached the street, Sunday in Palm Desert, Calif.
By Sunday evening, Hilary moved over San Diego and was headed north into inland desert areas. Around midday, it had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph.
Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said that while Hilary weakened from a Category 4 hurricane, it's the water, not the wind, that people should watch out for most — some areas could get as much rain in hours that they typically get in a year.
"You do not want to be out driving around, trying to cross flooded roads on vehicle or on foot," Brennan said during a briefing from Miami. "Rainfall flooding has been the biggest killer in tropical storms and hurricanes in the United States in the past 10 years, and you don't want to become a statistic."
He said rainfall could reach between 3 and 6 inches in many areas. Forecasters warned it could dump up to 10 inches — a year's worth of rain — in some isolated areas.
Authorities bring food and supplies for a shelter Sunday after the landfall of Tropical Storm Hilary in Rosarito, Mexico.
One person drowned Saturday in the Mexican town of Santa Rosalia when a vehicle was swept away in an overflowing stream. Rescue workers saved four other people, said Edith Aguilar Villavicencio, the mayor of Mulege township.
Mexican army troops fanned out across Mulege, where some of the worst damage occurred Saturday on the eastern side of the Baja Peninsula. Soldiers used bulldozers and dump trucks to help clear tons of boulders and earth clogging streets and roads that were turned into raging torrents a day earlier.
Power lines were toppled in many places, and emergency personnel were working to restore power and reach those cut off by the storm.
People sleep Sunday at a gymnasium that is being used as a shelter after the landfall of Tropical Storm Hilary in Rosarito, Mexico.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it has officials inside California's emergency preparedness office and teams on standby with food, water and other aid.
Authorities issued evacuation warnings Saturday for Santa Catalina Island and for several mountain and foothill communities in San Bernardino County. Orange County sent an alert for anyone living in a wildfire burn scar in the Santa Ana Mountains' Silverado and Williams canyons.
Across the region, municipalities ran out of free sandbags and grocery shelves emptied as people stockpiled supplies. California's Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park were closed.
A motorist walks out to remove belongings from his vehicle Sunday after becoming stuck in a flooded street in Palm Desert, Calif.
Death Valley's Furnace Creek Visitor Center received more than 1 inch of rain by 1:30 p.m., with up to 3 inches more possible overnight. "For comparison, Furnace Creek's average annual rainfall is 2.2 inches," the park said.
In Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency and activated 100 National Guard troops.
"I urge everyone, everyone in the path of this storm, to take precautions and listen to the guidance of state and local officials," President Joe Biden said. He later said he was being briefed on the storm and was prepared to provide federal assistance.
