Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, flooded roads, toppled trees and forced a rescue by the bulldozer of more than a dozen older residents trapped by mud in a care home as it marched northward, prompting flood watches and warnings in half a dozen states.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hilary had lost much of its steam and only vestiges of the storm were heading over the Rocky Mountains, but it warned that “continued life-threatening and locally catastrophic flooding” was expected over portions of the Southwestern US, following record-breaking rainfall.
Forecasters said the threat for flooding in states farther north on Monday was highest across much of southeastern Oregon into the west-central mountains of Idaho, with potential thunderstorms and localised torrential rains tomorrow.
Hilary first slammed into Mexico’s arid Baja California Peninsula as a hurricane, causing one death and widespread flooding before becoming a tropical storm, one of several potentially catastrophic natural events affecting California on Sunday.
Besides the tropical storm, which produced tornado warnings, there were wildfires and a moderate earthquake north of Los Angeles.
So far, no deaths, serious injuries or extreme damages have been reported in the state, though officials warned that risks remain, especially in the mountainous regions where the wet hillsides could unleash mudslides.
In one dramatic scene, rescue officials in the desert community of Cathedral City, near Palm Springs, drove a bulldozer through the mud to the swamped care home and rescued 14 residents by scooping them up and carrying them to safety, Fire Chief Michael Contreras said. They were among 46 rescues the city performed between late Sunday night and the next afternoon from mud and water standing up to 1.5 metres.
“We were able to put the patients into the scoop. It’s not something that I’ve ever done in my 34 years as a firefighter, but disasters like this really cause us to have to look at those means of rescue that aren’t in the book and that we don’t do every day," he said at a news conference.
To the northwest in the San Bernardino Mountains, crews worked to clear mud that blocked the homes of about 800 residents, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Alison Hesterly said.
In the mountain community of Oak Glen, Brooke Horspool helped dig out a home surrounded by about 1.2 metres of mud to free a couple, including an older man with medical issues.
San Bernardino County first responders also were continuing to rescue some 30 people who became stranded when the Santa Ana River overflowed near Seven Oaks, another mountain community. Authorities said boulders in the flow made it too dangerous to send boats so the people stayed overnight.
On Monday, a helicopter rescued one person with a leg injury and efforts to retrieve the others were expected to continue into Tuesday morning, although some people refused to fly out and wanted to wait for the floodwaters to recede, authorities said.
Authorities also say a woman was unaccounted for after witnesses saw her trailer swept away in a flash flood.
Amid the storm Sunday in Palm Desert, Terry Flanigan heard a huge crash and then got a text from a neighbour that a Eucalyptus tree, more than 30 metres tall, fell onto a condo across the street. She later learned it landed on the bed of her neighbour’s 11-year-old son, who luckily was in another room.
“It was very unnerving,” Flanigan said, adding that the family had gone to stay with relatives while removal crews came Monday morning to remove the branches. “Oh my gosh, what could have happened.”
Hilary is just the latest major weather event to wreak havoc across the US, Canada and Mexico. Hawaii’s island of Maui is still reeling from a blaze that killed more than 100 people, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century. Firefighters in Canada are battling that nation’s worst fire season on record.
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