Sunday August 20th, was a very eventful day for the citizens of California as the first hurricane since 1939 hit the state. The once Hurricane Hilary, now Tropical Storm Hilary, finally hit the majority of California’s inland after hitting the coastal cities two days prior. Hilary went over Chino and neighboring cities Sunday night, causing extreme wind speeds up to 70 mph, rain, and flooding all across Southern California. The flooding directly affected traffic and was a major cause for accidents on and off of the highway.

Coincidentally Ojai, California was hit by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake on the exact same day. 5.1 is not the highest earthquake that Ojai has had as in July of 1952, Ojai experienced an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7. The 5.1 earthquake shook cars, houses, trees, and many other things. The aftershocks lasted till Tuesday morning, with a record-breaking aftershock measuring 3.9 being the largest seen days after a main earthquake. Many residents felt the earthquake and were unprepared for it, as they had focused on the impending Tropical Storm Hilary.

The odds of two natural disasters happening on the same day are insanely low, and unlikely to happen again. Sophomore Mirandalee Smith stated, “It’s pretty cool that they both happened the same day”, showing that some people find the occurrence interesting. An old wives tale says, “Hot and dry is perfect earthquake weather”, yet Hurricane Hilary proved it wrong.