Hurricane Hillary downgraded to Category 2 as Mexico, US brace for ‘catastrophe’

Hurricane Hillary moved toward Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Saturday night as a Category 2 hurricane, amid warnings from the U.S. National Weather Service that the hurricane threatens “catastrophic” flooding and will cross the southwestern United States as a tropical storm.

While it could be the first tropical storm to make landfall in Southern California in 84 years, it is expected to weaken from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 2 storm and lose further strength as it moves north.

“Hurricane Hillary appears to be weakening rapidly,” National Hurricane Center Senior Hurricane Specialist John Cangialosi said in a Saturday update posted online.

Predictions

Forecasters said the storm could bring heavy rain to the southwestern United States, with isolated amounts of up to 25 centimeters in parts of southern California and southern Nevada.

Officials issued an evacuation alert for the tourist destination of Santa Catalina Island, 37 kilometers off the coast of Southern California, as Los Angeles officials scrambled to get homeless people into shelters.

Hurricane Hillary is expected to move north up the peninsula, threatening heavy rains and dangerous flooding in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, where many homes in the city of 1.9 million cling precariously to steep hillsides.

The US National Park Service has closed Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve in California to prevent visitors from getting caught in flooding. Cities across the region, including Nevada and Arizona, provided sandbags to protect property from flooding.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pre-positioned teams and supplies in the area. “I urge everyone, anyone in the path of this storm, to take precautions and listen to the guidance of state and local authorities,” he said. Source: Associated Press.