Southern California residents dealt mostly with an array of inconveniences on Sunday — high water in spots, road closures and even the suspension of some DoorDash deliveries — as they braced for Tropical Storm Hilary to enter its most intense chapter that night.
“It’s just like a normal storm. It’s a little bit rainy and windy,” Lynette Paoli, a resident of the San Bernardino Mountains community of Forest Falls, said late Sunday afternoon as she looked out her windows. “I hope it’s nothing like they are saying it’s going to be. I’m praying it bypasses us.”
The inland mountains and deserts, however, were expected to receive the storm’s most punishing rain and strong winds on Sunday night, and flash-flood warnings and evacuation orders were in effect.
Other Southern California counties were also expected to receive heavier rainfall than during the daylight hours, the National Weather Service said.
The rain is likely to move out around noon on Monday.
Just how much damage could result from the region’s first tropical storm in 84 years was anyone’s guess. Emergency officials in Riverside County took note of previous large storms, but Shane Reichardt, a spokesman for the Emergency Management Department, indicated this one was different.
“There is no history to know what to expect,” he said.
As a precaution, evacuation warnings were issued for burn scar areas in Beaumont, Banning, Hemet and Highland Springs, as well as other spots around the region.
Oak Glen Road, in an area of the San Bernardino Mountains that is prone to damage from natural disasters, washed out between Oak Mountain and Pine Bench Road, trapping several motorists. Swift currents of water could be seen flowing down streets in the Coachella Valley. And the emergency room at Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Desert flooded.
What started out as a hurricane in Mexico decreased to a tropical storm that moved slightly to the east as it crossed into the southwestern…
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