Now back to the developing
story on the West Coast.
This is radar of Tropical Storm Hillary
making its way into Los Angeles.
This storm is dangerous not
just because of the wind,
but all the rain it's dumping onto the area.
Mike Valerio joins us live
from San Diego tonight. Mike,
Marcelino and Cheryl,
good evening to you.
What a wild day and has been
across Southern California.
The first time in our history that
we ever had a tropical storm warning
up and down the coast from San Diego
all the way N towards Malibu and
earthquake in the Los Angeles area.
As we were all starting to batten down
here in San Diego and we are in the
tail end of rain bands from Hillary.
But look at this.
Rain falling horizontally winds
in excess of 50 miles an hour
and we are not done yet.
Tropical storm Hillary pummeling
Baja California Mexico on Sunday.
Heavy rains causing widespread flooding.
That storm now taking aim at California.
Flood warnings in effect from San Diego
up to Los Angeles and on top of all of
this Southern California rocked by a
magnitude 5.1 earthquake Sunday afternoon.
Hundreds of National Guardsmen and women,
350 that were deployed 11 counties The storm
is expected to dump 3 to 6 inches of rain,
but some areas could see up to 10 inches.
The downpours already triggering mud slides,
debris and mud spilling onto
this freeway in Palmdale,
just 55 miles north of Los Angeles
and outside San Diego.
Several huge boulders landing
on Interstate 8.
Officials warning people
to stay off the roads.
It is critical that Angelenos stay
safe and stay home unless directed
otherwise by safety officials
over the weekend, residents scrambling
to grab sandbags to protect their homes.
I've lived here for 30 years and
it has steadily gotten worse with
when we have rain showers and it's
backing up from the storm drain
crews in the LA area,
creating walls of sand to block
the high tides from reaching
buildings and homes along the water.
But it's not just the Golden
State that will be impacted.
Southern Arizona and Nevada
also expecting flooding.
We're activating all of
our crew to bring supplies,
start thinking about shelter
positioning and ensuring that
we have enough resources for
the communities in the area.
So
much Lena and Cheryl if you can hear me
what has been so wild about this storm.
You know, a huge difference from
covering a storm on the Gulf Coast
back home in Texas is that this is,
I'll tell you it is cold being here.
This is a miserable storm because the
wind that comes off the Pacific Ocean,
this is cold water that we have is so as as
soon as you get north of Baja California,
it's not like the very warm waters of
the Gulf Coast, of waters off of Florida.
What we are watching for as the sun
is set here in the overnight hours,
we're going to be looking at our
friends in the desert communities.
We're talking about Palm Springs, Coachella,
where they have the music festival
Jeth Valley north of the Nevada border.
It is easier for the coast to
handle precipitation like this.
It's not.
It's not We're talking in relative
terms here.
This is an event the National Weather Service
is talking about for the desert communities.
With rain so intense you see it right
here that it could alter the geology,
rock formations,
dry riverbed formations,
the flooding that we have seen
and our neighbors to the north and
east is certainly catastrophic.
So for here in San Diego,
school canceled for 120,000 kids
just to make sure that all the school
buildings across the metropolitan
area are going to be okay.
But we are acutely aware of all the
suffering that our friends to the
north in the desert have to go through,
as they have so many more rain bands
that are going to cross through
that section of California during
the evening and overnight hours.
But that's Lottie's latest reporting
from just right next to San Diego Bay.
I'm Mike Valerio.
Let's send it back home to Texas.
Yeah. Mike, thank you so much.
And and he brings up a great point,
Those cold ocean temperatures,
that's actually what helped to weaken
Hillary before it made its way to California.
So right now a tropical storm,
but rain is the main story.
Flood watches and warnings.
In effect, the highest flooding threats
going to be from the Inland Empire
all the way up through Death Valley,
up there towards Furnace Creek
as we go through the overnight.
It's a very weak storm right now.
Winds sustained at 45 weakens to a
post tropical storm as we get into the
overnight hours and tomorrow into Nevada.
But again, the damage is done.
It's really just a tremendous amount of
rainfall here piling in from the South.