Before the arrival of the powerful Pacific hurricane Hilary More than 18,000 soldiers have been put on alert in Mexico. The cyclone is expected to make landfall on the Baja California peninsula early Sunday morning, the Mexican weather service said on Friday (local time). The US Hurricane Center in Miami has warned that southern California in the United States must also be prepared for “life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flooding”. Hilary could trigger more rain there than otherwise falls in a whole year.
Hilary reached category four out of five on Friday off the northwest coast of Mexico, according to the US agency. In the evening, the hurricane was about 495 kilometers southwest of the tourist coastal city of Cabo San Lucas with sustained winds of up to 215 kilometers per hour. Remnants of the storm are already spreading across the southern portion of Baja California.
Satellite imagery provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Hilary on August 18 off the Pacific coast of Mexico.
(Photo: dpa)
Employees at a Los Cabos restaurant on the Baja California peninsula take precautions to prevent possible harm from “Hilary.”
(Photo: ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP)
US President Joe Biden warned people in the US state of California of significant rainfall. “I urge all people in the storm’s area to take precautions and listen to the advice of state and local authorities,” Biden said. The hurricane was expected to weaken somewhat before making landfall in Mexico and being downgraded to a tropical storm near California on Sunday evening (local time). But even that is still unusual for the US region. A tropical storm warning has been issued for California for the first time in history.
Children are still playing on a sand wall in Seal Beach, California, on Friday. It was built to protect houses.
(Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP)
Emergency shelters have been set up in Mexico. The military is making preparations for a possible deployment to help affected people in the states along the Pacific coast, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Friday. Hurricanes and tropical storms regularly hit Mexico at this time of year.
Hilary would be the first tropical storm to make landfall in California since 1939. At that time, dozens of people died because the residents of the region were not sufficiently prepared. The US Coast Guard predicted dangerous currents and strong winds for the coming days on Friday. “Stay away from the water,” they said.
Hurricane season begins May 15 in the Pacific and June 1 in the Atlantic. It will be declared over in both regions on November 30th. Tropical cyclones form over warm ocean water. Global warming increases the likelihood of severe storms. Wind speeds of 119 kilometers per hour or more are called a hurricane.