Hurricane Newton battered Mexico’s northwestern resort of Los Cabos on Tuesday, tearing down trees and blowing away tin roofs as thousands of tourists and locals hunkered down.
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Hurricane Newton roared into the western coast of Mexico Tuesday morning, hitting Los Cabos’ upscale resorts with winds topping 90 mph as they extended some 40 miles from its center.
Before the storm became a hurricane, it damaged as many as 70 homes in Acapulco in the state of Guerrero, according to The Weather Channel.
Hurricane Newton is the 14th named storm this year for the Eastern North Pacific.
The US National Hurricane Center also confirmed that Newton was “battering Baja California Sur (state) with strong winds and heavy rains”.
Newton is expected to produce heavy rainfall over a long distance-from Baja California, Mexico all the way to the USA southwest.
The hurricane also knocked out power in some places as stranded tourists huddled in their hotels.
In September 2014, Los Cabos, famed for its beaches, was pummeled by Hurricane Odile, which left six people dead and caused United States dollars 1 billion in damage. Newton could reach the US border as a tropical storm at midday Wednesday, and drop 1 to 3 inches of rain over parts of Arizona and New Mexico through Thursday, threatening flash floods and landslides, forecasters said.
Some 1,500 people took refuge in shelters in Los Cabos, Vazquez said.
The storm’s winds decreased to 120 kilometers per hour as it swirled some 125km north-west of La Paz, the state capital, the Miami-based forecaster said in its latest bulletin.
Police said five people were arrested for trying to loot two convenience stores in Los Cabos.
Beatriz Cruz, an emergency services official in Baja California Sur, said there were no reports of serious damages or casualties, but said she could see fallen trees and posts from her house.
On Monday, torrential rains from then-Tropical Storm Newton prompted some 100 people to evacuate their homes and damaged residences in Uruapan in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, the city government reported.
As the storm continues to track to the north, it will likely remain a tropical storm once it enters the United States, bringing heavy rain to a large portion of the country.
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The hurricane center said the storm could dump 1 to 3 inches of rain over parts of Arizona and New Mexico through Thursday, threatening flash floods and landslides.
