Photos: Clean up is underway after tropical Storm Hilary arrives in Southern California
Justin Duran helps dig out a car stuck in the mud as residents of Horizon Road in Cathedral City, Calif., clean up days after Tropical Storm Hilary flooded their community.
After days of urgent warnings, Tropical Storm Hilary made landfall in Baja California on Sunday, turning roads into rivers and imperiling homes before barreling north toward Southern California. By 6 p.m., the Southland was seeing flooding, downed trees, road closures and high winds. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas said conditions were continuing to deteriorate across parts of Southern California and western Nevada, especially the mountains and deserts. They said life-threatening, catastrophic flooding remained a possibility.
Scenes of the aftermath of flooding from Tropical Storm Hilary as crews and residents dig out from mud as deep as four feet. A home on Horizon Rd, right, and Avenida Primavera, left, suffered different fates from the storm.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Residents from a senior living facility are held by firefighters on Monday while being brought to safety after the Affinity Senior Living was inundated with flood waters from Tropical Storm Hilary in Cathedral City, Calif.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
With storm clouds looming overhead, Bernadette Duran of San Gabriel carries sandbags to protect her vacation home from predicted flooding in Palm Springs.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Keagan Abing is pulled by Jake on a watery stretch of Seal Beach on Sunday.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Residents cross 70th Avenue in Thermal, Calif., as Tropical Storm Hilary dumps torrential rain on Sunday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
A resident in Thermal, Calif., takes shelter from Tropical Storm Hilary.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Robert Nevill walks slowly from the store to his assisted living residence in Yucaipa, Calif., on Aug. 20, 2023. He got caught in the rain.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Nannie Auclair navigates wet conditions after buying beer at a neighborhood market in Thermal, Calif., on Aug. 20, 2023.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Hillary Tucker, 34, and her dog Oakley make their way through a flooded street in L.A.’s Valley Village neighborhood on Aug. 20, 2023.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A driver calls for help after his car stalled on Avenue 48 in Coachella, Calif., on Aug. 20, 2023.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Sergio Lopez, center, steers a large wooden plank to help Carlos Gutierrez, right, divert the floodwaters on Avenue 70 in Thermal, Calif.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
A truck struggles to get through a flooded section of Venice Boulevard in Culver City on Aug. 20, 2023.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Like Sisyphus, Cal Fire firefighters push boulders in the mud away from a truck in Oak Glen, Calif.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Dorian Padilla sits in his car as he waits for a tow after it got stuck in the mud on a street in Cathedral City, Calif.
Gina Ferazzi grew up in the small New England town of Longmeadow, Mass. She has been a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. Her photos are a part of the staff Pulitzer Prizes for Breaking News in 2016 for the San Bernardino terrorist attack and for the wildfires in 2004. She’s an all-around photographer covering assignments from Winter Olympics, presidential campaigns to local and national news events. Her video documentaries include stories on black tar heroin, health clinics, women priests and Marine suicide. A two-sport scholarship athlete at the University of Maine, Orono, she still holds the record for five goals in one field hockey game.
Genaro Molina is an award-winning staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. He has worked in journalism for more than 35 years starting at the San Francisco Chronicle. Molina has photographed the life and death of Pope John Paul II, the tragedy of AIDS in Africa, the impact of Hurricane Katrina, and Cuba after Castro. His work has appeared in nine books and his photographs have been exhibited extensively including at the Smithsonian Institute and the Annenberg Space for Photography.
Dania Maxwell is a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times. Before joining the newsroom in 2018, she worked in Colombia, South America and at the Naples Daily News in Florida. Her work has been awarded an Emmy, POYi, Sigma Delta Chi and Edward R. Murrow. Maxwell received a master’s degree in visual communication from Ohio University and a bachelor of arts from Sarah Lawrence College.
Francine Orr was a staff photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times from 2000-24. She is currently a Knight fellow at the Graduate School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. Previously, she was a staff photographer at the Kansas City Star. Orr served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. While there, she learned how to be a quiet observer and gained a love for stories. She was raised in Colorado and earned bachelor’s degrees in both history and art from the University of Saint Mary. In 2022, Orr received the coveted Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma and the National Headliner Award. She also won the 2020 Meyer “Mike” Berger and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature photography in 2012.
Robert Gauthier has been with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. He was the photographer for a project detailing the failings of an L.A. public hospital that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service. Before The Times, Gauthier worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Escondido Times-Advocate and the Bernardo News in San Diego County, his hometown.
