California mayors ask residents to stay in place ahead of Tropical Storm Hilary

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) and Palm Springs Mayor Grace Garner said Sunday that their residents should stay in place ahead of Tropical Storm Hilary, and both gave assurances that they are prepared for the storm.

Hilary made landfall over the northern Baja California peninsula on Sunday as a tropical storm, after it was downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane earlier Sunday. Weather conditions will continue to intensify as the storm heads northward toward Southern California and the Southwest region. 

In separate interviews on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Bass and Garner both warned their residents to stay in place ahead of the unprecedented storm. 

“We’re asking people to stay home, to be safe, that if they are outside for any reason, and they happen to see fallen trees or power lines, that they stay very far away,” Bass said. “If they need assistance, 9-1-1 and our 3-1-1 for city services. So we are all hands on deck here at the city’s emergency operations center.”

Garner similarly warned residents to stay home, saying, “At this point, we’re asking residents to stay inside, stay where they are. We don’t have any reason to evacuate at this time.”

“We have closed down preemptively three of our roads that are regularly flooded. That’s our three main arteries into our city, which is part of the reason that we’ve been working very hard to build bridges in these areas and requesting federal and state funds for that,” Garner added.

Garner added that Palm Springs is prepared for the storm, noting that she was out yesterday helping residents fill sandbags to prevent against flooding in their homes. 

Garner also confirmed that she has what she needs from the state, whose governor has declared a state of emergency.

“At this point, we have what we need. We’ve been working with the county, with the state. And we have robust resources. We’re very grateful for everyone’s quick response,” Garner said when asked if she has what she needs. 

“We feel good about what we’re looking at right now. It’s drizzling outside, and if it stays just this very light drizzle will definitely be okay. But we do know that there’s going to be flooding, because like I said, even an inch or two of rain in the desert can cause damage,” she added.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said Sunday that it was coordinating with state and local officials in California, Arizona and Nevada and that it has prepositioned supplies at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. The FEMA Incident Management Assistance Team was also available to help, and other teams were on standby, according to a statement Sunday.