Powerful Hurricane Odile lashes Mexico's Baja Peninsula
Hurricane Odile delivered a punishing blow to the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas, tearing away the fronts of luxury resorts and leveling ramshackle homes on Monday.
Although Odile was weakening as it continued up the Baja California Peninsula, torrential rain and thunderstorms from the storm's remnants could flood parts of the waterlogged U.S. Southwest Tuesday through Friday, AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Lada said.
Cities that could be hit with heavy flooding include Phoenix; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Tucson; Las Vegas; and eventually Salt Lake City, Lada said. The same area was drenched with record floods last week from the remnants of Hurricane Norbert.
Odile struck Sunday evening near Cabo San Lucas as a Category 3 hurricane, with winds at 125 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It tied as the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the Baja Peninsula, matching Hurricane Olivia in 1967, Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters said.
There have been no reports of deaths, though newspaper Tribuna de los Cabos reported people being injured by flying glass.
"From what we have seen around here, everything is pretty much destroyed," said Alejandro Tealdi, 32, a resident of Cabo San Lucas.
About 30,000 tourists were being put up in temporary shelters in hotels, and the Los Cabos international airport remained closed Monday.
"No power or cell service, been in this shelter since yesterday," tweeted Colleen Ferreira, a reporter for Denver's 9News. "What a vacation." She added that her hotel "suffered major damage in the hurricane. Windows blown out, debris everywhere."
No cruise ships remained in port in Cabo, the website Cruisin reported, though several were well off the coast or in other ports along Mexico's west coast.
As of 5 p.m.ET Monday, the center of Odile was located about 45 miles southwest of Loreto, Mexico, and had maximum sustained winds of about 80 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane, down from a Category 4 on Sunday. Odile was moving toward the northwest at 13 mph.
Hurricane and tropical storm warnings remained in effect throughout Baja California.
In addition to the immediate threat of high winds and storm surge, rainfall from 6 to 12 inches with isolated amounts up to 15 inches can also be expected on the Baja Peninsula, according to the Weather Channel.
Life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides are a good bet in areas of heaviest rainfall.
In Cabo, damage was reported along the "entire corridor" between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, said Deneb Poli, a medical worker at the Melia Cabo Real. She said all the hotel's guests and employees were fine, but electricity and phone lines were cut and cell coverage was spotty.
"There are parts of hotels that are completely collapsed. ... The damage is pretty extensive."
Poli said the plan for now was to stay put. By morning the rains had stopped and winds had died down, and residents and tourists emerged from shelters to assess the damage.
"I've heard there are power lines all over the roads, so there's no transportation anywhere," Ferreira said on Twitter.
Prior to the storm, Mexican authorities evacuated coastal areas and readied shelters for up to 30,000 people.
Odile's rampage up Mexico's Baja Peninsula continues what has been a ferocious hurricane season in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Odile is the 10th hurricane in the Pacific this year. This compares to a rather quiet season in the Atlantic, where only four hurricanes have formed.
Far out in the central Atlantic is Hurricane Edouard with winds of 110 mph. It is forecast to remain out at sea and pose no threat to land.
The hurricane center said Edouard's center was 575 miles east south-east of Bermuda and was moving northwest at 13 mph.
Edouard is stronger than any storm in all of 2013, according to atmospheric scientist Brian McNoldy of the University of Miami. He said it's the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Sandy reached 105 mph on the morning of Oct. 29, 2012.
Contributing: Associated Press
