Hilary has triggered flooding, heavy rains and powerful gusts across parts of the western US and Mexico, transforming streets into raging rivers and forcing some residents to flee, and leaving others in need of rescue, even after the storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone.
More rain was expected to fall throughout Monday and Tuesday as officials cleaned up the aftermath. After hitting Southern California on Sunday as a tropical storm – the state’s first since 1997 – Hilary headed into Nevada as its first-ever recorded tropical storm. As Hilary and its remnants moved up the western US, the storm brought power outages, flooding and calls for residents to evacuate or shelter in place.
Live updates: Hilary brings major flood risk to California
The storm broke rainfall records across Southern California: Palm Springs got nearly a year’s worth of rain with 4.3 inches in 24 hours, one of its rainiest days ever. Death Valley nearly set a record with 1.68 inches, and the Furnace Creek area, which usually gets about two-tenths of an inch in August, got 0.63 inches.