Flooding from Storm Hilary cuts off Palm Springs in Californiaon August 21, 2023 at 6:34 pm

Tropical Storm Hilary, which has hit California with life-threatening floods, has also cut off the state’s desert town of Palm Springs.

As of Monday morning, major roads in and out of Palm Springs were closed due to flooding after it was drenched with 3.18in (8cm) of rain.

Rescuers have also had to save several people there from swollen rivers.

The storm is now headed north to Nevada, where officials are preparing for more record rainfall.

Hilary made landfall in the northern part of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula at 11:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Sunday, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The storm quickly crossed the border into the US, drenching several desert towns.

Emergency 911 lines were down in Palm Springs, a town about 110 miles (175km) east of Los Angeles, as well as in nearby Cathedral City and Indio, according to officials.

Residents are being directed to a non-emergency number.

“Right now we have flooding on all of our roads. There’s no way in or out of Palm Springs and that’s the case for the majority of the Coachella valley. We’re all stuck,” said Palm Springs Mayor Grace Garner in an interview with CNN on Monday.

“This is a very extreme situation at the moment.”

So far, the storm has not resulted in deaths or any severe injuries in the US.

One man died in a car in a flash flood in Mexico on Sunday. The Baja California peninsula saw heavy rain and winds of 70 mph (119km/h) on Sunday.

The storm broke single day rainfall for San Diego, Palm Springs and several other California cities, according to the National Weather Service.

“As a native San Diegan, I can tell you, I’ve never lived like through anything quite like this” the city’s mayor told CBS on Monday.

About 50,000 people in the state were without power as of Monday morning local time, according to poweroutage.us.

During the heaviest rains on Sunday, many Palm Springs residents spent hours sweeping water away from doorways to prevent their homes from flooding, resident Sean Heslin told the BBC.

Schools have also been closed for Monday, including Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the country, because of concerns about driving conditions.

The last time a tropical storm made landfall in Southern California was in Long Beach in 1939.

Hilary is set to weaken as it moves north, but officials are still warning the storm could bring rare flash flooding to the Mojave Desert in Nevada. Parts of Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and Washington are also under flood watches.

“Areas that normally do not experience flash flooding will flood,” the National Weather Service said. “Lives and property are in great danger through Monday.”

As of 8:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Monday, Hilary was located 115 miles west-northwest of Elko, Nevada, and heading north-northeast at 24 mph with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph..

Experts say recent abnormal weather events that have plagued the US – and several areas across the globe – have been influenced by human-caused climate change.

Extreme weather has recently caused tragedy and chaos across North America.

July was the hottest month on record, according to Nasa. Earlier in August, the deadliest wildfires in modern US history spread across Hawaii. Over 100 people have bee confirmed to have died, and some 850 are still missing.

In Canada, hundreds of wildfires are raging in the province of British Columbia, scorching homes and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. It has been the worst wildfire season on record in Cnada’s history.

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