Tropical Storm Franklin makes landfall with major flood threats to Dominican Republic and Haiti

Torrential mudflows caused by Tropical Storm Hilary have wreaked havoc across southern California, including in the resort town of Cathedral City where the scale of devastation was captured by aerial footage.

Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit California in almost a century and deluged cities including Los Angeles and San Diego before moving north into Nevada.

Officials in Palm Springs, California, announced that the city had been completely cut off by flooding on Monday. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, power outages led to a major hospital being evacuated in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood.

The clean-up was beginning on Tuesday after rivers of mud and torrential downpours swamped communities including a number of resort towns in the Coachella Valley.

Hilary first slammed into Mexico’s arid Baja California Peninsula as a hurricane, causing one death and widespread flooding before becoming a tropical storm as it moved into California.

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been branded as “evil” for sending a bus of migrants to Los Angeles while the city was bracing for the dangerous impact of Tropical Storm Hilary.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slammed the Republican governor for “endanger[ing] the lives” of vulnerable families and toddlers by sending them into the heart of the storm at a time when local residents were warned to seek shelter away from the extreme weather.

“It is evil to endanger the lives of vulnerable migrants by sending a bus with families and toddlers on board to a city that at the time was under an unprecedented tropical storm warning,” the mayor said in a statement on Monday.

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Tropical Storm Franklin was making landfall along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic on Wednesday morning, bringing torrential rains to the country and neighboring Haiti.

Tropical Storm Harold, which had formed only hours before Franklin, was downgraded to a depression after making landfall in south Texas on Tuesday. The system has since crossed into northern Mexico where it was threatening the region with heavy rains.

The cyclones, which scientists say are being supercharged by the impacts of the climate crisis, are part of a record-breaking pattern unfolding in the Atlantic.

Aside from Harold and Franklin, two other systems formed in the Atlantic - Emily and Gert - in 39 hours, making it the fastest time on record for four named Atlantic storm formations, according to Philip Klotzbach, a Colorado State University Meteorologist.

This weekend, Tropical Storm Hilary wreaked havoc across Mexico, California and Nevada. Hilary, which caused one death in Mexico, was the first tropical storm to hit California in almost a century and deluged cities including Los Angeles and San Diego, leading to widespread flooding and mudslides.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic shut schools and government offices Tuesday as Tropical Storm Franklin took aim at the island of Hispaniola that it shares with Haiti and threatened to unleash landslides and heavy floods.

Tropical Storm Franklin was making landfall along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic on Wednesday morning, bringing torrential rains to the island.

Franklin was expected to drop up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in both countries, with up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) in isolated areas. Heavy rainfall is of great concern to Haiti, where severe erosion in many places can lead to catastrophic flooding.

The Associated Press

The National Hurricane Center reported on Wednesday morning that Tropical despression Harold had weakened as it moved from Texas into Northern Mexico but warned that residents should be on the alert for flood conditions.

A flood watch is in effect across portions of the Trans-Pecos and Big Bend regions of Texas, the NHC noted.