Tropical Storm Hilary, which was downgraded from a hurricane on Sunday august 20, made landfall in Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and pushed into Southern California, knocking down trees and causing flooding and mudslides.
As the storm hit, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck the Ojai, California, area on Sunday afternoon.
“We are in the middle of the first tropical storm since 1939, and we just had an earthquake,”
Ventura County Fire communications director Scott Thomsen told the Los Angeles Times.
Forecasters warned that Hilary’s heavy rains could hit California and other parts of the Southwest with “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” in deserts and mountains, with Death Valley and Morongo Basin expected to be hit hard. Some areas could get a year’s worth of rain in 24 hours. [Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post]
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