Hurricane Hilary Slips to Category 2 As Storm Barrels to Mexico, California; ‘Catastrophic Flooding’ Still a Threat

Hurricane Hilary was downgraded Saturday afternoon to a Category 2 storm by the National Hurricane Center, but is still a major storm sustaining 110 mile per hour winds as it churns toward Mexico's western coast and California.

And forecasters are still warning the hurricane could trigger "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" to the region from late Saturday into Monday.

The storm has sped up, and was moving Saturday afternoon at 17 mph and was 640 miles southeast of San Diego

Earlier Saturday, Hilary was classified as Category 4, with 130 mph sustained winds.

Hilary could make landfall as southern California's first hurricane since 1939, and is expected to drench the area with three to six inches of rain over a matter of days, with isolated pockets seeing 10 inches.

That's more than some desert cities in Hilary's path see in an average year, according to the National Weather Service.

The U.S. Navy has shifted ships further out to sea, Major League Baseball has rescheduled games with potential playoff implications and residents are battening down the hatches for a potential storm the likes of which hasn't been seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president.

As of the latest National Hurricane Center update, Hilary is expected to pass by Mexico's Baja California Peninsula late Saturday into early Sunday, then sweep across southern California from Sunday afternoon into Sunday night.