Hurricane Hilary heading for Southern CA

[BarbaraRose]

I have decided not to go to work tomorrow so I let my manager know tonight. Hilary is supposed to hit around midnight tonight with high winds and torrential rains all night and tomorrow with "catastrophic flooding" here in the valley. I don't want to worry about how I will get home from work. Roads out here flood fast even with a slight downpour. I will hunker down at home with the cats and hope for the best. (I have a ladder that I could use to get me and the cats up on my roof ). This is getting scary!

I have my porch set up with water, food and a litter box for any stray cats who need shelter. Will leave the door open tonight and tomorrow for them.

Dark clouds are starting to move in and the humidity is thick enough to cut with a knife!

Will keep updating as I can, unless we lose power.

[Liz]

Stay safe, Barb, and pack a bag of essentials in case you are told to evacuate quickly or have to be rescued. Praying for you and others in the path of the storm.

[Bethers]

I think you made a very smart decision about no work for tomorrow, Barbie. This isn't anything to fool around with.

[snowball]

be safe Barbie
sheila

[Cudedog]

Excellent decision, Barbie. What Beth said.

Praying for you, and hoping that this thing is not as bad as expected.

Stay safe, please update when you can.

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

OMG! The rain just started 20 minutes ago and I already have water leaking down the inside of my bedroom window from the top! Never had that happen before! Now I have to keep mopping it up for another 24 hours until the storm is over! Hope I have enough towels for that

Would have been nice if that would have happened during yesterdays storm so I could have had someone caulk the window today before Hilary showed up.

I just checked all the other windows and all seems fine, and no leaks from the skylights. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!

[Pooker]

Yup! Here it is 5:40 a.m. Sunday and it's raining. Too bad it wouldn't stay a nice, steady rain like it's doing, but that's not going to happen. I just got an email notice from the electric company that there will be outages. They must be running scared because of the suits about their falling lines starting those awful fires. Sorry about your leak, Barbie. Our problem in this area is when it's so dry for so long, there's no way to know where the leaks will be! So far, I'm good, but my son lives in his RV and his space ALWAYS floods. His rig is also old, so again, ya never know where the leaks will be!

I've prepared as best I can. Evacuating usually isn't much of an option because if the flooding is that bad the roads will be flooded and washed away, and thousands of people all trying to get out of one area would just make a major traffic jam. We don't have a lot of highways except the 2 or 3 freeways, but they are warning us that those may have to close.

Think we're in for quite a ride!

[OregonLuvr]

Hoping you all stay safe. It doesnt even take much rain for the desert roads and washes to flood. Many people have been washed away in much less rain for trying to forge ahead on the highways. Barbie best decision you could have made to stay HOME. Hunker in place is the best plan. I am glad to see it will be a tropical storm when it hits but the rains will be huge. The weather is so wacky. We had the "unprecidented fire", now the "unprecidented rain and wind" for you all. Extreme heat. Yup I believe in global warning. Right now we have fires all over. Mostly started from lightning. Who knows what winter will bring.

[BarbaraRose]

Mostly just lighter rain all night luckily so I was able to sleep pretty well. The big stuff is coming later today. Many roads already closed due to wash outs or just anticipating flooding in low areas. The Nat'l Parks, zoos, airport, etc are all closed thru tomorrow. Catalina Island off of the Long Beach area is being evacuated. Beaches all along the coast are close and berms are being made to protect from the waves. Tons of sandbags being filled. The burn scar areas in the mountains north of here are all being evacuated due to potential mudslides and debris flows. Most Californians are taking this very seriously.

Hurry up and wait...

[monik7]

Thinking of you Barbie and everyone in the line of the storm. Stay safe!
Sandi

[BarbaraRose]

For those of you not on FaceBook, here are some pics I took around my yard and neighborhood...

the green space in back of me and the flooded gazebo.


The tree stump right behind my house. I was watching the water level creep up towards it. The stump is about 5 feet from the back of my house. The water never reached the stump luckily!


The front of my house. Luckily no flooding on my street!


The next street over is flooded


Same street from the other direction. These homes didn't fare so well.

This house is surrounded by water. It is right across the green space from me. You can see my house behind it on the left.


This is the small clubhouse, laundry and pool area just down the street from me with the road and parking lot flooded in front.


Another flooded green space and gazebo down the other way from me


These are just in my immediate neighborhood. I have no idea how bad the rest of the park is yet. Will check it out tomorrow. I feel very fortunate to not have any damage. I think I should raise the price of my place for being on a lake and withstanding a tropical storm! Lol!

[Cudedog]

Thanks for posting the photos, Barbie!

So very happy that you have come through this so well. Looking forward to your updates tomorrow.

Anne

[monik7]

That was pretty scary. So glad you came through it so well Barbie.
Sandi

[OregonLuvr]

Barbie I am sure you are exhausted. So much hype and unknown in this kind of situation. Anxiety is a given. In our fire I did not have time to react and anticipate the what if's. I wish I had more notice on one hand and then on the other just glad we got out alive. So happy for you that your home escaped unscathed. Especially since it is now on the market you do not have any major repairs to do as I am sure getting help will be a slow process now. As it is after any disaster. Your pictures definitel told a story of your community.

[Bethers]

Barbie, I just read a news report that as of two hours ago there was no way in or out of Palm Springs. Yikes. Hopefully waters are receding. Pictures are scary all over. I'm glad you were able to get pictures at your place and it's amazing the difference just across the street. You picked a good location and that should go a long way with your buyers. You might want to say so to your realtor and send him the pics to prove it now before someone can say you waited for the water to go down.