Tropical storm causes damages and flash floods in Southern California

Tropical storm Hilary hit San Diego County on Sunday afternoon, Southern California’s first tropical storm in 84 years. The last tropical storm to hit the Los Angeles area was in 1939. The storm first landed on Sunday, killing at least one person in Mexico’s Baja California peninsula before reaching Southern California later that day.

How much damage has the storm caused? The storm dropped more than half an average year’s rain on Southern California, forcing rescue teams to pull several people from swollen rivers. Fire officials rescued 13 people from a partially flooded homeless encampment along the San Diego River. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for much of Southern California, and the two largest school districts in the state canceled school on Monday as a precaution.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Onize Ohikere’s report on Cyclone Idai, which devastated Mozambique in 2019.