California Prepares For Hurricane Hilary And First Tropical Storm In Nearly 100 Years
It’s always best to expect the worst, and with that in mind, Hilary could make history if it reaches San Diego as a category 1 hurricane. It’s currently a category 4 off the coast of Mexico, and should be hitting California later this weekend. Best case scenario, it makes landfall as a weak tropical storm, but either way, places like San Diego, Orange County, and L.A. (and all of southern California, really) obviously don’t have the infrastructure to sustain nearly a foot of rain in a single day. Expect to see massive flooding, significant loss of life, buildings collapsing, downed trees, mudslides, and god knows what else. We’ve never had anything like this here before, and it sounds like inland/desert areas could suffer the worst. This is not the kind of 10 inches the Palm Springs gays are used to:
“Regardless of the exact track and intensity of Hilary, which could continue to change in the coming days, it will bring a substantial surge in moisture into Southern California, with heavy rainfall and a high potential for flash flooding, especially for the mountains and deserts,” according to the National Weather Service.
Forecasters said mountains in Riverside and San Diego counties could see 4 to 8 inches of rain, possibly up to 10 inches on some eastern slopes, between Saturday and Monday. Lower desert areas could received 5 to 7 inches. Coastal areas are currently anticipated to get between and inch and an inch-and- a-half of rain, with valleys getting 1.5 to 2 inches.
California’s local news anchors (including the ones in high heels and short skirts) are of course all over this. A sampling of reports from the last few hours:
