US southwest on alert as Hurricane Hilary approaches
States across the typically arid US southwest were racing on Saturday to prepare for life-threatening flooding forecast as Hurricane Hilary approaches from Mexico, where damage and one death were reported. A Saturday night bulletin from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Hilary's winds had significantly weakened but were still sustained at a hazardous 145 kilometres per hour with higher gusts. On the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, that would put the storm at a Category 1, down from its Category 4 peak. The storm's centre "will move close to the west-central coast of the Baja California Peninsula" on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the NHC said, and "then move across southern California Sunday afternoon". "Heavy rains" were affecting portions of Baja California and the southwestern United States, with "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding likely". The storm is expected to weaken into a tropical storm before reaching southern California and southern Nevada, with heavy rainfall and flooding still possible. Mexico's Civil Protection agency said in a statement on Saturday that river and stream levels had risen significantly in Loreto and Mulege on Baja California's east coast, which was also hit by landslides and road closures. It added that one person had died after a vehicle was swept away by a stream in Mulege. Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Although the storms sometimes affect California, it is rare for cyclones to strike the state with much intensity. Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer with climate change. (AFP)