DON’T ASSUME FUTURE STORMS WILL BE MILD

The arrival of Tropical Storm Hilary in the region on Sunday was an ordeal or a huge inconvenience for many people — especially those who struggled with flooding in Tijuana, air travelers dealing with flight cancellations and delays, and drivers using Interstate 8 who only learned the freeway was closed in the Ocotillo area when they came upon massive lines of cars and 18-wheelers. The wet, windy conditions also only added to ever-present concerns about how homeless individuals were faring. Still, it wasn’t remotely the tragic nightmare that seemed possible when Hilary was a hurricane heading Southern California’s way late last week.

But it’s still appropriate to look at how authorities handled their responsibilities — and to emphasize that the next similar weather event (and there will be one) may be far more serious.

By and large, the state government, the city of San Diego and the county all appeared to be prepared for the storm’s arrival and took proper steps early on to keep residents safe and to get important information to them.

Yet school districts and universities had a surprising variety of responses to the same set of circumstances. Some made their decisions to close campuses on Monday promptly, starting with San Diego State University, with SDSU announcing Friday afternoon that it would hold virtual classes that day, and Palomar College, which canceled Monday classes on Saturday. But San Diego Unified didn’t announce it was postponing its first day of class to Tuesday until after 2 p.m. Sunday. On Friday, the San Diego Community College District announced it would remain open Monday, then changed its mind after 6 p.m. Sunday with a statement saying all campuses would be closed. But some districts seemingly didn’t share these concerns and never closed.

Here’s a factor that may not have gotten the consideration it needed: Even if classes were canceled, a case can be made that some K-12 schools should have stayed open as shelters so students would have somewhere safe to go to if their parents had to work. It’s also worth reviewing whether schools with many students who live in Tijuana adequately considered the risks or challenges they would face in traveling north on Monday, especially given that brutal border delays began Saturday night — well before the storm hit.

The — in this case, literal — Monday morning quarterbacking from those on social media who said authorities’ warnings about Hilary’s risks were excessive and who implied that next time, these warnings should be taken with a grain of salt, may have been inevitable in a cynical era. But this pontificating is very risky. No one should have any illusion that Sunday — the rainiest August day in the recorded history of San Diego and several other local cities — won’t be followed by many more such firsts as the climate emergency continues to accelerate.

As weather experts have warned for years, a warmer ocean makes stronger, bigger and scarier storms much more likely. The conditions allow storms to rapidly intensify and reach hurricane strength. This is why experts on storm formation at Colorado State University expect 50 percent more hurricanes a year going forward than the average seen from 1981 to 2010. That Pacific waters off the West Coast have historically been colder than those in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico near Eastern and Southern states no longer provides as much reassurance as it used to supply, as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noted earlier this month.

Those who are in denial about this new era put themselves and their families at risk — and, in some cases, their students and their employees.