Ahead on cnn newsroom, much of Southern California now under a Storm Warning never seen before. Well tell you what the region could see. In hawaii, the latest on Rec Recoveriests and the search for those still missing. And cnn learns when donald trump is expected to sure rending himself to a jail here in tlapt. Details and the legal negotiations going on right now behind the scenes. Reporter live in cnn center this is cnn newsroom, we begin this hour in the Southwestern United States where people are bracing for catastrophic flooding. Hurricane hilary could dump more than a year worth rain of in a few days. Its likely to make landfall in mexico but its moving fast and could arrive in california as a Tropical Storm, the first such storm to do so in decades. Its been 84 years since one came ashore, so its a Once In A Lifetime event that were going to be experiencing. Preparations are already under wa the federal Emergency Management agency is sending personnel and supplieso Southern Cali
Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. Im fredericka witfield. A Major Hurricane is barreling toward the southwestern u. S. Hurricane hilary has weakened to a category 3 as it hammers mexico with strong winds and high waves. Forecasters warn it could dump more than a years worth of rain across california, nevada and arizona in a short amount of time. The threat is so severe in the golden state that a Tropical Storm warning has been issued for the First Time Ever there. Cnn meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the conditions. A years worth of rain in a short amount of time, how are they going to handle that . That is the big concern, because especially in the desert areas that ground is not able to absorb it very quickly, so a lot of it becomes runoff, leading to localized flash flooding. Sustained winds 125 Miles Per Hour gusting up to 155. Weve seen that Forward Movement pick up. Its starting to speed up. Thats important for the timing of a lot of the rain showers. W
electric, has been under growing scrutiny. there are many questions why it didn t cut power when high winds began bringing down transmission lines. more than 120 faults or short circuits in the overnight hours before the fires started. joining me now is michael wara, interim policy director of the sustainability accelerator at stanford s school of sustainability, director of the climate and energy policy program at woods institute for the environment, and a senior research scholar there. thanks for being with us. we have to stipulate at the offset we don t know what caused the fires in hawaii, but there were reportedly serious faults on the power lines in the area where the fire started. what do you make of the data and the videos that seem to show arking from the lines at the at the time of the fire. it creates a strong circumstantial case for power
power line ignitions involved. then conditions are ripe that ay small spark would have p propigated that. conditions were already set. the investigation is going to try to find the initial source of that. the lahaina landscape is completely changed. just look at this video and reminders of the ash in its wake. we ve also seen video of power lines going down, fires possibly sparked as a result of and i wonder in your view, how will that kind of video assist in helping to pinpoint what truly started these fires? well, investigators are going to look at information from the power authorities, from videos, from any kind of phone calls to 911 and firsthand accounts, compile these.