much moisture being associated with the system as it moves on shore. jim? and people in that part of the country, please take all of these warnings very seriously. derek van dam, thank you very much. as we mentioned earlier, there are already evacuation warnings in place for parts of southern california. this could be the first time a storm like this has hit the state in more than 80 years. the california national garland guard is standing by ready to help. a state emergency official tells cnn it s an all hands on deck situation. we have swift water rescue teams, high-water vehicles positioned all over southern california. we ve also moved millions of pieces of commodities into the region, so cots, blankets, food, water, in case we need to set up shelters. we really want to be on the front foot of this and that s what s happening now. cnn s natasha chen is live in los angeles. natasha, looks like the winds are picking up there a bit. how are things looking? reporter: picking up
we begin this hour with an historic hurricane barreling toward the u.s. hilary is now a category 3 hurricane with top winds of more than 100 miles per hour. this is new video of the storm pummeling mexico as it inches closer to the u.s. the powerful system could bring a year s worth of rain in one day to parts of the southwest along with potentially catastrophic and life-threatening flooding. right now parts of southern california are under a tropical storm warning for the first time in history. officials and residents there are preparing with sandbags and the california national guard is standing by ready to help. a state emergency official tells cnn it s an all hands on deck situation. we ve got a cnn team at this hour tracking hilary. meteorologist derek van dam is closely following the path aina tasha chen has a look at storm preps in los angeles. derek, let s start with you at the cnn weather center. i can t believe we re talking about a hurricane and preparations for it in los
royals. it dates back to medieval times. and the queen was buried within st. george s chapel last monday. thank you so much for being with me. the newsroom with jim acosta starts right now. you are live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. a powerful storm is heading toward florida and every resident will feel the impact according to a state emergency official who is urging people to prepare for possible evacuations. the exsxexact path is still uncertain, but it is expected to become a category 3 or higher. florida authorities are distributing sand bags and asking residents to stock up on
governor beverly purdue goes there today to see the damage done by days of rain from tropical storm nicole. a state emergency official says it will be several more days before the water actually recedes. what a nightmare for the folks there. unfortunately we have more rain with another low developing off the coastline of north carolina and that s not something folks in north carolina want to see. look at this. we have rain coming off the eastern seaboard. there s north carolina. notice it s traveling all of the way up about to hit new york city. it s hitting the jersey shore right now into delaware and into maryland. we re watching for that. as you can see the flood threat continues. we have warnings posted up from vermont down through the carolinas and those will continue straight through the night because we have a lot of runoff that will cause problems for those of you had heading out and about for this evening. take a look at some of the rain as it continues to work toward the no