Forecasters warned that despite the hurricane’s weakening, the storm’s speed picked up on Saturday and urged people to finish their preparations for sunset. According to one expert, by Sunday it would be too late.
According to forecasters, the storm is still expected to enter the history books as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, bringing with it flash flooding, mudslides, isolated tornadoes, strong winds and widespread blackouts.
Heavy rain and flooding were reported Saturday before the storm moved into the southwestern United States on Sunday, where it is expected to dump up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain on southern California and southern Nevada.
“This does not lessen the threat, especially the threat of flooding,” Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the US National Hurricane Center, said during a briefing Saturday to announce the storm’s downgraded status. “You must not allow the weakening trend and intensity to lower your guard.”
Meteorologists also expect the storm to cause “life-threatening” waves and rip currents, including towering waves up to 40 feet (12 meters) high, along Mexico’s Pacific coast. Dozens of people sought shelter in storm shelters at the twin resorts of Los Cabos on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, and firefighters used an inflatable boat to rescue a family in San José del Cabo after rain and the wind will hit the area.
Authorities in Tijuana, a border city of 1.9 million, ordered all beaches closed Saturday and set up half a dozen storm shelters at sports complexes and government offices.
The Mexican Navy evacuated 850 people from islands off the coast of Baja California and deployed almost 3,000 soldiers for emergency operations. In La Paz, the picturesque capital of the Baja California Sur state on the Sea of Cortez, police patrolled closed beaches to keep bathers away from the surf.
In the United States, the Miami-based Hurricane Center has issued tropical storm warnings and possible flooding warnings for southern California, from the Pacific coast to mountainous and desert areas. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation notices Saturday for several mountain and foothill communities in advance of the storm’s arrival.
And authorities issued an evacuation notice for the tourist destination of Santa Catalina Island, 23 miles (37 kilometers) off the southern California coast, as Los Angeles authorities scrambled to move people off the streets. homeless people and move them to shelters.
As of Saturday afternoon, the storm was 640 miles (1,030 kilometers) south-southeast of San Diego, California. It was moving in a north-northwest direction at 28 kilometers per hour (17 miles per hour) and there are forecasts that it may turn further north and increase its speed.
According to forecasts, the storm was moving off one of the westernmost foothills of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico.
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Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington, Maria Verza and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City, John Antczak and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, and Eugene Garcia in Newport Beach, California contributed to this report.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
