Hurricane Newton soaked Mexico’s western Pacific coast with heavy rain Monday and took aim at Baja California’s twin resorts of Los Cabos, where residents nailed plywood over windows and pulled in fishing boats while preparing for a possible direct hit two years after being slammed by a major storm.
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Hurricane warnings have been issued for the area around the resort town of Cabos San Lucas, the NHC said. The storm was moving north-northwest at 8 miles per hour (13 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour (65 kph).
Newton was expected to move up the peninsula and enter the Gulf of California by Tuesday night.
Newton threatened to cause more mudslides and flooding in eight states along the Pacific coast, the Mexican authorities said, adding that thousands of shelters were readied.
Torrential rains which began Saturday morning caused 33 landslides on interstate highways and the Ayutla-Cruz Grande federal highway, Guerrero state authorities said.
Floods and landslides damaged or affected some 70 homes and schools and trapped around 200 people in Acapulco, the resort in the south-western state of Guerrero.
Heavy rainfall trapped around 200 people in a housing complex, prompting air evacuations by police, marines and the army.
The US National Hurricane Center has warned that it could trigger flash floods.
Hermine, located some 241km south-east of the eastern tip of New York’s Long Island, had sustained winds of 112.6 kmh but was expected to weaken late on Tuesday.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for parts of Mexico’s coast from Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes and from north of La Paz to San Evaristo.
Over the weekend, the USA state of Florida was battered by Hurricane Hermine, before it weakened to a post-tropical storm and drifted off the U.S. east coast.
It was Florida’s first hurricane landfall since 2005, causing street flooding and power outages.
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Hermine, the fourth Atlantic hurricane of 2016, brought bad news for throngs of travelers hoping to enjoy beach time on the three-day Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of the United States summer vacation season.
