The Brief

Hilary is officially a tropical storm, according to the National Weather Service. So no longer a hurricane, but it's forecast to pack a wallop still, with heavy rains and wind, bringing potential flooding and mudslides.

The latest

A satellite view of the storm's path taken Sunday.

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Courtesy NOAA

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• The rain has started to hit many areas in Southern California, with the most intense rain and wind striking at night and sticking around into Monday morning. Rainfall in the city of Los Angeles is expected to total about 1.5 to 3 inches, with winds from 20-30 mph.
• Conditions are expected to be much worse in the valley and mountain regions. At a press conference Sunday morning, L.A. Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said those areas can expect 3 to 7 inches of rain and Santa Ana-like winds up to 40 mph, with gusts to 50 mph.
• A state of emergency is in effect for much of Southern California.
• All state beaches in Orange and San Diego counties are temporarily closed. Camping is canceled in affected areas, and some inland parks are closed due to flooding concerns. 
• The L.A. Unified School District will announce later in the day on Sunday whether schools will be open or closed on Monday.
• Flash flood warnings and watches are in effect throughout the region.

Here’s an excerpt from our guide to understanding flood warnings:

• Flood advisories are how the NWS begins to raise the alarm. The goal is to give people enough time to take action.
• Flood watches are your indicators to get prepared to move.
• A flood warning is issued when a hazardous weather event is imminent or already happening. When one is issued for your area, you need to get to higher ground immediately.
• A flash flood warning is issued when a flash flood is coming or in progress. Flash floods are sudden and violent floods that can start within minutes.

Read more: Flash Flood Warnings? Watches? Here’s What You Need To Know

Forecast and conditions

The storm was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm by the time it reaches us, in part because colder waters off our coast deplete the energy needed to sustain a hurricane.

Our dramatic, mountainous topography will also help to break up the storm, according to Paul Iñiguez, meteorologist with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institute for Oceanography.

“They’re large speed bumps in the air,” he said.

Rainfall totals could reach 6+ inches in our desert areas according to this forecast from August 18.

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National Hurricane Center

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The difference between a hurricane and a tropical storm is wind speed, and regardless of what Hilary is downgraded to, one thing's for certain: it's going to bring enough rain to threaten communities, particularly those in the mountains and deserts.

We could see flash floods across the southwestern U.S., particularly in desert areas due to Hurricane Hilary.

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National Hurricane Center

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Tropical storm and flood watches have been issued by the National Weather Service for counties across Southern California.

What else you should know

• Rainfall: Expect 2-4 inches across many metro areas, and potentially more than 6 inches in the mountains and deserts. Rainfall rates could hit 0.5 to 1 inches per hour, meaning debris flows and flash floods are very much a possibility.

• Wind: Should be around 20-30 mph, with gusts up to 73 mph in some spots. That's strong enough to potentially cause power outages and downed trees. Comparable to a strong Santa Ana wind event.
  
• Violent seas: South-facing beaches are particularly vulnerable and could see waves up to 10 feet high. There's also a high risk of rip currents. Boaters should seek safe harbor on Sunday and Monday due to dangerous conditions.

How emergency responders are preparing

State and federal officials from California Office of Emergency Services, Caltrans and other agencies provided updates on hurricane preparations on Saturday.

Their message for Southern Californians was clear: Stay off the roads during the peak hours of the storm between Sunday and Monday.

"If you must travel and you encounter water flowing across the roadways do not attempt to drive through it," said Tony Tavares, director of Caltrans, adding that the department may close roadways preemptively to ensure road safety.

Additional resources across the state have been summoned for support, including in emerency medical services and local sheltering operations.

And a number of military rescue vehicles are placed throughout the region.

"We also have other capabilities, soldiers, airmen who are standing by and will be prepared to respond as the need arises," said Colonel David Kauffman from the California Military Department.

On Saturday afternoon, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office issued evacuation warnings for the communities of Oak Glen, Forest Falls, Mountain Home Village, Angelus Oaks, and Northeast Yucaipa.

As for the city of Los Angeles, it has issued an emergency alert and has activated its Emergency Operations Center, has a fully staffed fire department on standby and is expanding its 311 operating hours. The L.A. Department of Water and Power also has crews available to respond to power issues.

“Whether it be wildfires or earthquakes the city is prepared,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass during a news conference on Friday afternoon.

The L.A. County Department of Public Works has been clearing debris basins and culverts, and fixing roads across unincorporated areas since last spring, when the last of the atmospheric rivers slammed into us. They have teams ready to deploy in case of incident, as do Orange and Ventura counties.

"We're preparing for the worst, but the forecast is not out of line with what we were dealing with this last winter," said Steven Frasher, public information officer with L.A. public works.

Both L.A. and Ventura county fire departments are preparing for swift water rescues.

The city of Avalon on Catalina Island is expected to be one of the hardest hit spots. As such, L.A. County has preemptively deployed an additional rescue boat and personnel to the island.

The Los Angeles Sheriff Department is advising residents and tourists on Catalina to leave the island as soon as possible.

Some south and southeast facing beaches are being shored up in anticipation of a storm surge, including Seal Beach in Orange Count as it's particularly vulnerable. Long Beach, San Pedro, Point Mugu and Port Hueneme are as well.

What's the risk?

Heavy rainfall is likely to result in debris flows and flash floods. Desert communities out in places like the Antelope Valley could see flooded roads, especially at low water crossings.

Be smart and avoid driving Sunday night through Monday morning if you can. Treat this like you would a powerful atmospheric river.

The context

For the first time ever, the National Hurricane Center has issued a Tropical Storm Watch for areas across Southern California. The last time we were directly hit by a tropical storm was back in 1939, when one made landfall in Long Beach, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

While the track of this storm is unusual, the hurricane itself is not.

“So far this season has played out as expected,” said Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.

Tropical cyclones regularly form off the coast of Southwest Mexico between May and November. While they usually track west out into the Pacific, they can head north toward Baja.

Sometimes they do indirectly impact Southern California. In September 2022, Hurricane Kay dropped more than 5 inches of rain on the area, causing flooding and damaging homes.

Cancellations

The Dodgers, Angels and Padres have all had their Sunday home games moved to Saturday, so they'll all be playing double headers.

Meanwhile, "CicLAvia—Koreatown meets Hollywood" has been canceled for Sunday. Organizers on Saturday announced that while the event "has always gone on rain or shine, the weather is just too unpredictable."

If you were planning on taking a trip out to the desert, you know that Joshua Tree National Park is closed to backpacking. And the Mojave National Preserve, which just saw its most destructive fire on record, is closed completely. It's unclear how this major storm is going to affect recovery efforts.

The Summer Sounds concert series in West Hollywood has been rescheduled.

The Interstellar Music Festival in San Pedro is canceled this weekend.

A number of Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains between Los Angeles and San Diego are canceled Saturday night through Monday morning.

Downed tree, power line or flooded road?

Dial 911 if it's an emergency.

However, if you need to report a flooded road or a downed tree, you can call the following non-emergency numbers:

• L.A. City: Dial 311 for a flooded road or downed tree. Call (800) DIAL-DWP if you see a downed power line.
• L.A. County: (800) 675-HELP
• Ventura County: (805) 384-1500
• Orange County: (714) 955-0200 or visit here.

If you're in L.A. County and need sand bags you can find some at local fire houses.

Sign up for emergency alerts

• L.A. City: Notify L.A.
• L.A. County: Ready L.A. County
• Ventura County: Ready Ventura County
• Orange County: AlertOC
• Riverside County: AlertRivCo

How we're reporting on this

Science and environment reporter Jacob Margolis is tracking the storm and adding updates. Climate emergency reporter Erin Stone is reporting on preparation efforts in Palm Springs. Correspondent Josie Huang, Weekend Edition host Julia Paskin, producer Daniel Martinez and other LAist staff members are reporting on city and county emergency plans.

This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think fire, police, government officials and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes and/or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.

A long-running court battle between California veterans and the Trump administration will continue, as federal officials consider asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s order to build more housing for unhoused L.A. veterans.

A federal appeals court on Thursday agreed to temporarily pause the order to construct more than 2,500 new housing units on the Veterans Affairs campus in West L.A.

Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Counsel representing the plaintiffs, told LAist the delay could spell life or death for unhoused veterans, especially as the region braces for strong El Niño-driven storms.

“These are veterans who risked their lives and suffered both the visible and invisible wounds of war,” Rosenbaum said. “What the government is saying to them is, you're supposed to stay on the street."

VA officials did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

Veterans' lawyers in a court filing called a possible appeal to the Supreme Court a “hopeless shot.”

“The government has lost every time they have taken this to court. No court has ruled for them on any of these matters,” Rosenbaum told LAist. “This is part of the administration’s war on its own veterans, and it’s time for that war to come to an end.”

Could long-running case end up at the Supreme Court?

The litigation was initiated in 2023 by L.A. veterans struggling with homelessness. The case has centered on the 400-acre V.A. campus, which U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has ruled should offer more housing to the approximately 2,250 veterans experiencing homelessness in L.A. County.

In 2024, Carter ordered officials to add thousands of temporary and permanent homes, and end leases with UCLA, a private K-12 school and an oil drilling company, which he said did not serve the needs of veterans.

An appeals court last month blocked the federal government’s efforts to halt the housing construction. But veteran advocates knew that federal officials could ask for further delays as the case winds through the courts.

VA officials now have until Dec. 10 to decide whether to appeal their fight to the Supreme Court. Judges with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals told lawyers for the federal government that if they do not decide to appeal by Dec. 10, “the stay will be lifted immediately.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District shortened the application window for specialized academic programs this year, and will no longer accept paper forms.

Applications for the district’s magnet, dual language and affiliated charter schools for the next academic year opened Oct. 1 and are due Nov. 6, 2026.

How does it work?

If you want your child to attend their neighborhood school, enrollment is fairly straightforward. There’s a separate process for the district’s specialized programs called Choices.

There are two windows to apply — on-time and late. The latter consists of all the spaces left after families who applied on time accept their offers.

Here’s the timeline for the 2027-28 school year:

• Sept. 2026: School fairs start.
• Oct. 1, 2026: Choices application opens.
• Nov. 6, 2026:  Deadline to apply online.
• Dec. 1, 2026:  Late applications begin. 
• February 2027: On-time applicant results sent. 
• March 5, 2027: Deadline to accept or decline school offers for on-time applicants. School assignments for late applications follow the processing of on-time applications. Students may be offered a spot through the start of the spring semester. 
• Aug. 12, 2027: The school year begins.

LAUSD will no longer accept paper Choices applications. If families do not have a computer, they can use a smartphone to complete an application. LAUSD will also allow families to use computers at school parent centers.

How to prepare

Every child within LAUSD boundaries is assigned a school — find yours through the district’s “resident school identifier.”

But there are also hundreds of other programs available through the Choices process.

Those include:

• Magnets: Programs on a specific theme, such as science, math, language, advanced studies or art. These programs were originally established to integrate segregated schools and have a unique “points” system to prioritize applications. 
• Dual language or immersion: Students learn in English and in a second language such as Spanish, Mandarin, Korean or Armenian. 
• Affiliated charter schools: District-run schools with more freedom to try different types of teaching or other programs. 

No one type of school is inherently better than another, and no one metric defines a great school — there are many factors beyond test scores to consider, and we go over some of those here.

By far the most frequent piece of advice we’ve heard is to go on an in-person school tour if possible.

“The very best thing that people can do is go to the school and try to watch the way that educators interact with students, the way that students interact with each other, and the way that families are included or not in the life of a school,” said Jack Schneider, a University of Massachusetts, Amherst, education researcher and parent. “Once you do that, you really get a sense of what kind of place kids are going to school.”

Some schools post tour information online, but you may need to call for details.

LAUSD also hosts fairs, organized by geographic region, where multiple schools table and share information about their programs, through mid-October.

The Justice Department found Thursday that the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions.

The announcement follows a similar finding against the university’s medical school and comes as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up scrutiny of colleges’ processes for selecting students. The administration also has accused the UC Berkeley Law School and the medical school at the University of California, San Diego, of illegally discriminating against white and Asian applicants.

The UCLA School of Law said in a statement that it was committed to making admissions decisions in compliance with all applicable laws.

“Students are admitted through a comprehensive, merit-based review process that considers each applicant’s achievements and experiences,” the statement said. “We are confident in our process.”

Affirmative action in college admissions has been illegal since a 2023 Supreme Court ruling forbade it. The same ruling said colleges could continue to assess how applicants’ backgrounds might speak to broader characteristics, but Trump has accused colleges of using applicants’ personal statements and other proxies to consider race in admissions — which conservatives view as illegal discrimination.

The Justice Department’s investigation found UCLA’s law school discriminated against white and Asian American students by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants in its 2023, 2024 and 2025 incoming classes. Its analysis found the mean LSAT score was lower for admitted Black applicants than for admitted white applicants.

The department also said admissions staff at the law school instructed applicants during recruitment efforts, including one called the “Diversity Admissions Open House,” how to reveal their race in essays.

“Like many of its peer institutions, UCLA Law School runs a two-tiered admissions system whose academic bar for acceptance shifts up or down depending on the color of your skin,” said Harmeet Dhillon, head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, in a news release.

California voters ended affirmative action in college admissions in a 1997 ballot measure. In a brief filed in the Supreme Court case, the UC system said the change led to a precipitous drop in underrepresented minorities, especially at the system’s most selective campuses. The brief said UC went on to implement a range of race-neutral measures to increase diversity.

The Trump administration also has sued over the main UCLA campus’s response to allegations of antisemitic harassment. The administration’s latest finding sets the stage for a voluntary resolution to bring UCLA into compliance with the Justice Department’s legal interpretation or, if none can be reached, potential legal action.

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Artist Hedy Torres asked a 20-something student from Cal State Northridge to sit for a portrait nearly a decade ago. Using charcoal on paper, she drew the dark-haired young man in black and white — but she deliberately kept the portrait unfinished.

The idea was that she would complete the piece if her subject, a DACA recipient named Lino de Jesús Pérez Cuevas, ever attained lawful permanent residency.

And now he has.

DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that provides two-year work permits and deportation relief for people who were brought to the U.S. as children. The permits can be renewed, but the program does not grant a pathway to citizenship. 

In late September, Pérez Cuevas — who is now married, a father, a green card holder and an adjunct instructor at his alma mater — sat with Torres once again.

Torres’ project involves interviewing subjects as she sketches them. This year, she invited the public to watch her complete the portrait as she spoke to Pérez Cuevas about what it took for him to get a green card and what that means for his life.

About two dozen people gathered at a community center in West Hollywood’s Plummer Park to see her add details to the piece that speak to the passing of time.

“I just wanted to make people empathetic to what [immigrants] go through during this process,” she said. “You have to be very patient. There is a lot of uncertainty.”

Responding to the potential loss of relief

Pérez Cuevas, who was born in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, was brought to the U.S. by his parents when he was 2.

When Torres drew him in 2017, he was pursuing a master’s degree in kinesiology at Cal State Northridge. That year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced intentions to rescind DACA, which had enabled him to set goals without the fear of being deported. A 2020 Supreme Court decision allowed the program to continue.

Torres was once undocumented herself, so she understood the 2017 announcement was earth-shattering for the approximately 800,000 people who were then in the program, she said.

The original, unfinished portrait of Lino de Jesús Pérez Cuevas.

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Courtesy

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Hedy Torres

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That year, Torres was also a student at CSUN, working toward a master’s in fine art.

She recalled recently that she wanted people to see DACA recipients as people, not numbers. And so, for her master's project, she proposed creating portraits of DACA beneficiaries.

The portraits would be rooted in interviews conducted as she drew her subjects. Leaving them unfinished, she said, would symbolize the precarity of the moment.

The pieces would have enough detail for viewers to see the subjects’ faces clearly, particularly their eyes and expressions. Other elements, including their bodies and clothing, would be more of an initial sketch.

The university greenlit her project and gave her a grant to pursue it. There was just one problem: Torres had to convince reticent DACA recipients to share their stories.

Building trust 

When Torres first messaged Pérez Cuevas about the project, he ignored her for two weeks, he said. But because they had a mutual friend, he eventually agreed to meet with her.

“I was trying to see whether this person was just an academic trying to complete a project for her own benefit, or whether she really cared about the community,” he told LAist.

They met at a coffee shop. Pérez Cuevas learned about the artist’s journey from the Mexican state of Colima and everything she’d lived through since.

Before 2015, for example, an undocumented person in California could not get a driver’s license. When she was undocumented, Torres was stopped by police and had her car impounded. She said she had to cobble together thousands of dollars to get her car back from a tow yard.

Pérez Cuevas could relate. He had experienced the same thing.

He decided to trust her.

After she drew him, Pérez Cuevas helped Torres connect with more DACA recipients at the university. She drew four other portraits, which were also left unfinished.

These works were acquired by the university, with the agreement that Torres would be able to borrow and complete them when — and if — her subjects attained lawful permanent residency.

Community members watch Artist Hedy Torres update the portrait at Plummer Park in West Hollywood.

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Julia Barajas

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LAist

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‘A sense of freedom’  

As she worked on the portrait, Torres added soft lines rendered in charcoal to the image of Pérez Cuevas’ face, along with a robust mustache. And she continued the interview.

“What did you imagine your life would be like when you were young?” Torres asked.

Thinking back to high school, Pérez Cuevas said he realized then that not having a social security number barred him from decent-paying work.

“I didn't really understand what I was doing with my life,” he said, adding that he used to not think higher education was for him even while he was at CSUN. “My state of mind was really dark back then.”

He credited a college counselor with helping him navigate school. He earned his degree in 2017.

Pérez Cuevas said he has intimate knowledge of what it’s like to live with constant uncertainty: not knowing how he would pay for college because he did not qualify for federal financial aid; not being able to travel outside the country; and waiting anxiously for federal officials to make decisions on immigration laws that could transform his life.

“I can't stress enough how difficult it is psychologically to wait because it's something that can revolutionize your life,” he said. “You're betting your whole life on this approval and just that suspense of waiting, waiting, waiting, living with that anxiety.”

Torres completed her portrait of Pérez Cuevas in September 2026. Four other portraits remain unfinished.

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Julia Barajas

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LAist

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services continues to process renewal requests for existing DACA recipients, but the agency is no longer approving first-time applications.

Under the second Trump administration, DACA recipients are also experiencing significant delays with renewals. Some have lost their jobs. Recipients have been deported. According to the agency, the median processing time for DACA renewals was one month in 2023. Currently, it’s taking seven months to process most cases.

Pérez Cuevas said he was able to adjust his immigration status after marrying a U.S. citizen and consulting with an attorney. His lawyer helped him secure a document that allowed noncitizens to travel abroad and seek legal re-entry.

“Did getting permanent residency give you a sense of freedom, a freedom you probably didn't have when you were under DACA?” Torres asked him.

“Absolutely,” Pérez Cuevas said. “The biggest freedom was psychological freedom. You have this weight that you've been carrying all these years that finally just gets thrown off your shoulders.”

One of the things he feared most was long-term separation from his parents, he said.

When his mother and father migrated to the U.S., they did not see their own parents — his grandparents — for 40 years, Pérez Cuevas added. After his parents moved back to Mexico during the pandemic, he feared they would also go decades without seeing each other.

But having a green card enables him to travel and see his family.

Pérez Cuevas told Torres that, paradoxically, the threat of losing DACA made him “weirdly ambitious."

He said he doubled down on his studies and took on every internship he could. He figured that if the U.S. decided to deport him, he’d still have his education and work experience.

“Even on the days where I didn't necessarily have the greatest energy or the greatest state of mind, I showed up for myself,” Pérez Cuevas said.