Tropical Storm Hilary causes landfall near Mexico’s Baja California coast

Tropical Storm Hilary made landfall along Mexico’s Baja California coast on Sunday as concerns mounted over the storm causing what could be deadly flash flooding in the border city of Tijuana, Southern California and places as far north as Idaho that rarely get such heavy rain.
Hilary hit the coast in a sparsely populated area about 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Ensenada.
The storm has already caused flooding in places across Mexico’s arid peninsula and threatens to unleash torrential rains on mudslide-prone Tijuana, where many improvised houses cling to steep hillsides just south of the U.S. border. Forecasters warned the storm could cause extreme flooding, mudslides and even tornadoes. Parts of the U.S. Southwest could be hit with once-in-a-century rains and there is a good chance Hilary could break all-time records as the wettest known tropical cyclone to douse Nevada, Oregon and Idaho. As of 11 a.m. Pacific time, Hilary was located about 215 miles (340 kilometers) south-southeast of San Diego, the National Hurricane Center reported. Hilary had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and was moving northwest at 25 mph (41 kph). The Mexican cities of Ensenada and Tijuana, directly in the storm’s path, closed all beaches and opened a half-dozen shelters at sports complexes and government offices. Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said that while Hilary had weakened from a Category 4 hurricane, it’s the water, not the wind, that people should watch out for most. “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,” Brennan said in an online briefing from Miami.
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. Forecasters expected Hilary to make history as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, bringing flash floods, mudslides, isolated tornadoes, high winds and power outages.