Tourists flee Hurricane Jimena in Mexico

SHAKE AND BLOW

Tourists look at the sea in Los Cabos, Baja California state, Mexico, on September 1, 2009. Hurricane Jimena was packing winds of up to 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour, just short of a Category Five hurricane, as it approached the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Photo courtesy AFP.

Jimena weakens to Category Three hurricane: US
Hurricane Jimena weakened to a Category Three storm as it bore down Tuesday on Mexico's Baja California, said US forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC). With maximum sustained winds of nearly 125 miles per hour (205 kilometers per hour) and higher gusts, the Miami-based NHC downgraded Jimena but still warned the storm "could be near major hurricane strength when it makes landfall" later Tuesday.

Tropical Storm Erika forms near northern Leeward Islands
A swirl of bad weather developed into Tropical Storm Erika Tuesday just east of the Caribbean basin near the northern Leeward Islands, the US National Hurricane Center said. Island governments across the region issued storm watches in preparation for the arrival of Erika, which at 2100 GMT was moving west-northwest at a steady nine miles (15 kilometers) per hour, the Miami-based NHC said. Maximum sustained winds were almost 50 miles per hour (85 kilometers per hour), and "some slow strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days," the center said. A tropical storm has winds of up to 105 mph (165 kph) before it is classified as hurricane force. On its current route Erika was expected to remain northeast of the Leeward Islands. Tropical storm watches were issued for the Netherlands Antilles, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla as well as the islands of St. Martin and St. Barthelemy. The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on November 30. So far, 2009 has seen one of the calmest starts to the hurricane season in a decade, which researchers have attributed to the development of an El Nino effect in the Pacific. Meanwhile, Hurricane Jimena in the east-central Pacific weakened to a Catergory Three storm as it bore down on Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

by Staff Writers
Puerto San Carlos, Mexico (AFP) Sept 1, 2009
Hurricane Jimena sent tourists fleeing Tuesday as it bore down on Mexico's Baja California, while fishing communities on the sparsely populated peninsula toughed it out.

The peninsula, which spears down from California into northwestern Mexico, lay directly in the path of 2009's mightiest hurricane, but few residents evacuated even as tourists scattered from resorts on its southern tip.

"This phenomenon is unprecedented. In the history of the peninsula, we have not had a storm of the force of Jimena," Jose Gajon, director of the Baja California Sur civil protection service, said in a local radio interview.

"It has been raining since yesterday, many places are totally inundated and cut off and that's even before the storm has really made its presence felt."

Jimena had weakened slightly but was still a Category Four hurricane with winds topping 145 miles (230 kilometers) per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest bulletin at 1500 GMT.

"A hurricane warning is now in effect for the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula," said the advisory, posted on its website.

As the storm approached, local officials prepared evacuation plans for more than 20,000 families considered most at risk.

"We are still not prepared. They just told us today to start bringing people to shelters," said a worker at a sardine packing plant in the village of Puerto San Carlos, home to some 4,000 people.

With gusty winds and rains already hitting La Paz, the capital of the peninsula's southern Baja California Sur state, residents hastily boarded up windows and stocked up on groceries before the shops closed.

Tourists were not planning on hanging around so long and the resort town of Los Cabos on the southern tip of the Baja peninsula was the big early loser.

The threat of "severe damage" from the storm had the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development move a major international conference on tax transparency from Los Cabos to Mexico City.

The local hotel association estimated that some 7,000 tourists would be evacuated before the storm was expected to make landfall on the resort-filled peninsula.

"I'm leaving Los Cabos, advancing my departure, because I know a lot about hurricanes. I'm a Florida native and I know its effects," one fleeing American, Jesse Short, told AFP at the airport.

Adriana Patterson said she was leaving a day early because of Jimena. "I am returning to San Diego, my husband is staying here, but I am returning for my safety and (that of) my daughter."

Los Cabos International Airport manager Martin Pablo Zazueta told AFP the airport would close well before the hurricane hit.

"Various airlines, in particular foreign ones, are applying the rescue plan to take any tourist who wants to go out of Los Cabos in the face of the threat posed by Jimena.

"So far about 1,000 tourists, mostly Americans, have decided to return to their country," he said.

While the rains and strong winds were already buffeting southern areas of Baja California around Los Cabos, the storm was not expected to make landfall until Wednesday at the earliest.

"If it was to follow this track it would hit land at sometime Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning," a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center told AFP.

"This is certainly not the strongest hurricane there has been in this part of the world. We had one 12 years ago, Hurricane Linda, that was much stronger than Jimena," he added.

The US State Department has urged caution in traveling to areas of Mexico and the parts of the United States lying in the storm's path.

"US citizens located in areas likely to be impacted by Hurricane Jimena and who do not have access to adequate and safe shelter should consider departing while commercial flights are still available," it said in an alert.

Not all were prepared to leave.

A defiant Gregory Smith, from New York, quipped: "Many Americans are leaving, but I'm going to stay here."

The center of the hurricane was 140 miles (225 miles) south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas as of 1500 GMT Tuesday.

It was moving north-northwestward at about 12 miles per hour and will skirt the southern portion of Baja California later Tuesday and the center of the peninsula by Thursday, the NHC said.

burs-ag/jm

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SHAKE AND BLOW

Hurricane Jimena roars toward Baja California
La Paz, Mexico (AFP) Aug 31, 2009
Hurricane Jimena on Monday roared toward Mexico's Baja California as an extremely dangerous Category Five storm, Mexican officials said as they planned emergency evacuations for 20,000 families in its path. Jimena was packing winds of up to 155 miles per hour (250 kilometers per hour) but was expected to weaken slightly before making landfall in Baja California late Tuesday or early ... read more

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