Desert highways have turned into raging rivers in Palm Springs, California, where storm Hilary has dumped record rainfall as it moves across southwest US.
The arid resort town is known for sunshine, palm trees and very little rain.
It has been one of the hardest hit communities in the tropical storm, with video footage showing a sea of mud, flooded streets and dangerous debris flows.
Palm Springs received nearly 50 per cent of its yearly rainfall in less than a day. It also experienced its wettest-ever summer day and broke its record for the most rain in a single day.
Mayor Grace Garner told CNN the city’s 911 emergency system was knocked out by the storm.
“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,” she said during an interview on the network.
Parts of southern California and the US southwest were braced for flash flooding along with landslides and mudslides after storm Hilary unleashed record-breaking downpours.
About 17 million people were under flood and high-wind advisories, watches and warnings as remnants of the storm moved north on Monday (local time).
Hilary dumped heavy rains from the California-Mexico border up through Las Vegas and into parts of the northwest, the US National Weather Service said.
Hilary was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone overnight.
Some mountain and desert areas were expecting as much as the deserts typically get in a year, forecasters said, with accumulations of 12cm to 25cm.
The rain was expected to slowly dissipate in southern California but officials warned residents not to let their guard down as dangerous flooding could wash out roadways and inundate neighbourhoods.
“The ongoing and historic amount of rainfall is expected to cause life-threatening to locally catastrophic flash, urban and arroyo (watercourse) flooding including landslides, mudslides and debris flows today,” the weather service said.
About 400 flights in and out of airports across the southwest were cancelled or delayed on Monday morning, including 100 landing at and taking off from San Diego International Airport, according to Flightaware.com.
California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for much of southern California while US President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to move personnel and supplies into the region.
Before striking the US southwest, the storm passed northward through Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
It killed at least one person in Mexico, triggered flash flooding and swept away roads.
It crossed the border on Sunday afternoon (local time), hitting San Diego County with its first tropical storm ever recorded and becoming the first to pelt Los Angeles County since 1939.
As the region hunkered down for the storm on Sunday, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit Southern California north of Los Angeles.
In Ventura County just northwest of Los Angeles, Fire Department Captain Brian McGrath on Monday told CNN that the bulk of the rain had passed through the county with no significant road closures although authorities were surveying for any extra storm or earthquake damage such as fallen trees.
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