With Hurricane Hilary racing toward Southern California, Bay Area families and tourists were making changes to their trips Friday night.
“My boyfriend called me two nights ago and was like ‘there’s a hurricane coming,’ and I got so scared and so nervous,” said Chloe Sorensen of San Diego.
She canceled her plans in the Bay Area for the rest of the weekend and booked a flight back home Friday to prepare her cabin for a historic storm.
“We're going to have to get a bunch of rope so our trees don’t crash over into our neighbors and our own space, but tons of my friends who live on the beach are getting sandbags and prepared for floods,” said Sorensen.
Despite the oncoming storm, a South Bay couple decided last minute to move forward with their anniversary trip to San Diego.
“Should we go? Should we not? Forget it let's go, if we get a chance to see it, we’ll see it,” said Fernando Gonzales of San Jose.
Others with tickets back to San Diego for Sunday or Monday say their flights are already being impacted -- with warnings of possible delays and cancellations.
“I go this text at 2:49, about 40 minutes before I boarded the flight to come here,” said Lisa Cogan.
She’s a teacher in San Diego where she says schools are talking about canceling school Monday.
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Both San Diego and Los Angeles are preparing for the worst
"This is a regional event that will impact not just LA county but all of southwestern California, potentially Arizona and Nevada also. So our responsibility right now is heavily leaning into coordination support,” said Kevin McGowan of the Office of Emergency Management.
Families are stocking up on supplies, laying down sandbags and bracing for floods at a time when fires should be the biggest threat.
“I don’t think any of us know what to expect,” said Cogan.
Because of the travel alerts, several airlines are now offering travel waivers, and flexibility to change flights, ahead of Hurricane Hilary.
