Hurricane Hilary threatens 'catastrophic' flooding in Mexico and California

Hurricane Hilary headed for Mexico's Baja California on Saturday as the U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" for the peninsula and for the southwestern United States, where it is forecast to make land as a tropical storm on Sunday.

Officials as far north as Los Angeles scrambled to get the homeless off the streets, set up shelters and prepare for evacuations.

Hilary is expected to plow into the Mexican peninsula on Saturday night and then surge northward and become the first tropical storm to hit southern California in 84 years.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for a wide swath of southern California, from the Pacific Coast to interior mountains and deserts. Officials talked of evacuation plans for California's Catalina Island.

"I don't think any of us — I know me particularly — never thought I'd be standing here talking about a hurricane or a tropical storm," said Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

After rapidly gaining power early Friday, Hilary slowed a little later in the day but remained a major Category 4 hurricane early Saturday, with maximum sustained winds of 215 km/h, down from 230 km/h.

Early Saturday, the storm was centred about 375 kilometres west of the southern tip of the Baja peninsula. It was moving north-northwest at 26 km/h and was expected to turn more toward the north and pick up speed.

The latest forecast track pointed to Hilary making landfall along a sparsely populated area of the Baja peninsula about 330 kilometres south of the port city of Ensenada.

It is then expected to continue northward, raising fears that its heavy rains could cause dangerous flooding in the border city of Tijuana, where many homes in the city of 1.9 million cling precariously to steep hillsides.

Mayor Montserrat Caballero Ramirez said the city was setting up four shelters in high-risk zones and warning people in risky zones.

"We are a vulnerable city, being on one of the most visited borders in the world and because of our landscape," she said.

Concern was rising in the U.S., too.

The U.S. National Park Service closed Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve to keep people from becoming stranded amid flooding. Cities across the region, including in Arizona, were offering sandbags to safeguard properties against floodwaters.

Major League Baseball rescheduled three Sunday games in southern California, moving them to Saturday as part of split-doubleheaders.