Newton slammed into the twin resorts of Los Cabos on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula Tuesday mo. The Hurricane Center says Newton’s forecast track will take it into southeastern Arizona in the afternoon.
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“This will keep the storm stronger for awhile, likely keeping it at hurricane strength into Wednesday”, said Moore, adding that after the storm makes its second landfall in northeast Mexico on Wednesday, it is expected to weaken to a tropical storm and even further to a tropical depression as it makes its way into Arizona.
The Category 1 hurricane hit Cabo San Lucas early on Tuesday morning, then headed northwest, with the eye of the storm over the south of the peninsula. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Workers board over a store front in preparation for Hurricane Newton, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. The boat had set out from the port of Ensenada and was bound for Mazatlan.
On Tuesday evening, the storm was around 85 miles (137 km) southwest of the port of Guaymas, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), the US National Hurricane Center said.
The storm is due to produce up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) of rain in Baja California Sur and as much as 25 centimeters in several Pacific coast states, which could trigger life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.
Some hotel windows broke, but the 14,000 tourists in Los Cabos were “safe” in rooms made to shelter them within the facilities, said state tourism secretary Genaro Ruiz Hernandez.
Hurricane warnings were in effect across the resorts of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.
Palm trees were toppled along the town’s coastal boulevard and some windows were broken. But there was calm in the city as firefighters cleaned refuse from the streets during the day.
But the region prized by American and Canadian tourists avoided a major disaster, two years after a deadly Hurricane Odile ravaged the Los Cabos resort, killing six people and causing $1 billion damage in the September 2014.
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“You know, it could have been a lot worse and I think we are very fortunate that it wasn’t as bad as Odile”, said Darlene Savord, another tourist from California.
