Hurricane Juliette takes life of U.S. man

Associated Press

LOS CABOS, Mexico — Hurricane Juliette weakened slightly off the Baja California coast, but the still-dangerous storm churned up waves that were blamed in the Wednesday death of a U.S. tourist and a fisherman who drowned earlier in the week.

Juliette’s winds fell to 110 mph as the hurricane moved parallel to the coast, about 215 miles south of the resort city of Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of the Baja peninsula.

William Creson, 45, of Denver, Colo., drowned while surfing in the 10-foot waves kicked up by the storm at Cabo San Lucas Wednesday afternoon, said Adolfo Lailson of the Mexican Red Cross.

Juliette’s movement to the northwest at about 10 mph should keep the center of the hurricane about 120 miles off shore. But hurricane-force winds extended as far as 70 miles from the storm’s center, and tropical storm force winds were felt 260 miles out.

The Mexican government took no chances, upgrading tropical storm watches to warnings in the southern Baja peninsula. Schools in Los Cabos were closed and readied for use as temporary storm shelters.

Shopkeepers taped up their windows as rain pelted this resort city and palm trees flapped in stiffening winds.

The threat of the storm further emptied the nearly deserted Los Cabos resorts, already reeling from a sharp drop in tourism following the terrorist attacks.

The Elation, a cruise ship operated by Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines, was docked at Cabo San Lucas to avoid the storm, company spokeswoman Irene Lui said Wednesday. The ship, which left Los Angeles on Sunday, had been scheduled to visit Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan before stopping at Cabo San Lucas on its return voyage.

Heavy rain brought by Juliette flooded more than 200 homes in the southwestern state of Michoacan, and the Mexican army sent transport and rescue aircraft, medical teams and emergency supplies.

A fisherman died near Acapulco when his small open boat capsized in high seas on Monday, the government news agency Notimex reported.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami called the storm "still dangerous" despite a drop from previous wind speeds of up to 145 mph.

They noted that Juliette’s atmospheric pressure — one measure of the storm’s strength — at one point was the second-lowest on record for a Pacific hurricane in this hemisphere, second only to Hurricane Ava of 1973. Hurricanes feed off low-pressure cells over warm ocean waters.

Storms born off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast rarely cause major problems for the United States.