Pacific storm comes ashore
Published 9:00 pm Friday, September 1, 2006
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico – Hurricane John roared over the lightly populated eastern tip of the Baja California peninsula late Friday, but the storm appeared to spare the glistening resorts of Los Cabos, authorities said.
The storm’s eye came ashore Friday evening about 20 miles northeast of San Jose del Cabo, and the storm was moving north at 9 mph. Forecasters said it would likely lash the state capital of La Paz with top sustained winds of 110 mph before crossing the narrow stretch of land and heading out to sea.
John wasn’t likely to affect the United States; cooler Pacific waters tend to diminish storms before they reach California.
Some streets were flooded in Cabo San Lucas, but the water was merely ankle-deep at its height. Stores reopened two hours after hurricane-force winds first lashed the peninsula and residents antsy from spending all day in shelters emerged into the streets, where some started a pickup soccer game.
Known for the rugged beauty of their unique desert-ocean landscapes, the two resort cities of San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of the Baja peninsula are studded with high-end golf courses. The resorts are extremely popular with sports fishermen and celebrities. Rooms at some of the higher end hotels go for more than $2,000 a night.
In San Jose del Cabo, a brief bout of heavy winds toppled the signs of shops and sent metal gates flying in the air. But there were no reports of major damage.
On Friday, thousands of tourists who couldn’t get flights out prepared to ride out the storm.
“That water wasn’t that high a few minutes ago,” said Dale Broomfield, 26, a nurse from Adelaide, Australia, who negotiated a makeshift plank bridge over water that rose up between his hotel and an adjoining convention hall-turned-shelter in Cabo San Lucas.
Nearby, Guadalupe Amezcua, a 50-year-old tourist from Mexico City, set up camp on one of many mattresses on the floor of the hall, where windowless rooms provided protection from wind.
“This is like an adventure for us, but I’ve learned now: never travel during hurricane season,” Amezcua said as she folded her clothes.
“We came for the sun – and now look!”
Meanwhile on the U.S. East Coast, Ernesto weakened to a tropical depression Friday, but the storm still packed enough punch to dump more than half a foot of rain, knock out power to more than 300,000 customers and force hundreds of people from their homes.
And it was far from finished. On the eve of the Labor Day weekend, the storm prompted flash flood watches for wide sections of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and central New York.
At least one person died when a massive tree crushed a modular home in Gloucester, Va.
