MEXICO: Hurricane John damages beach towns on country's Pacific coast even as it is downgraded to a category three

Hurricane John punished Mexican ports and beaches with huge sea surges, heavy rains and strong winds on Thursday (August 31) morning as the powerful storm swirled in the Pacific Ocean off the coast. The dangerous Category 3 hurricane could dump up to 10 inches (0.2 metre) of rain, causing landslides or flooding and had maximum sustained winds approaching 125 mph (205 kph) that could produce isolated storm surges along the Mexican coast of up to 18 feet (6 metres), uproot trees and rip roofs off buildings. The Mexican government said its hurricane warning extended from the southern steel-making port of Lazaro Cardenas up the Pacific coast to the tip of the Baja California peninsula, popular with tourists and yachtsmen. But Wednesday (August 30) the storm was just far enough out in the ocean to spare the port of Manzanillo its full fury. The centre of Hurricane John swirled northwestward off the mainland about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Manzanillo. At 2 a.m. local on Wednesday (0900 GMT on Thursday), the center of the hurricane whipped west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph) parallel to the coast about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Manzanillo, and was expected to remain just offshore. It was about 365 miles (580 km) south of the tip of Baja California. Maximum sustained winds approached 125 mph (205 kph), giving the hurricane the punch capable of life-threatening flooding, mud slides in mountainous areas and severe damage to property. "Thank God it went by and didn't do any damage just some water which we are used to. The water stays to moisten the ground because it hardly rained. It only rains when a hurricane passes and that's what happened now," said Modesto Hernandez, a fisherman preparing to head out in his boat to work. Mexico ordered the evacuation of at least 10,000 people in the Baja California peninsula John headed toward the peninsula and tourists were told to hole up in hotels. Local residents around the Los Cabos beach resort will be taken to shelters, by force if necessary, before the storm pummels the region on Friday, said Jose Gajon, head of civil protection for the state of Baja California Sur. Most hotels in the luxury resort, popular with foreign tourists and famed for its beaches and Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses, have their own shelters and tourists have been advised to stay in them until the storm passes. After slamming into Los Cabos on Friday, the storm is expected to spin back out into the Pacific, posing no threat to the United States. In October, Hurricane Wilma smashed up Cancun and other beach resorts on Mexico's Caribbean coast. It caused massive damage, sucking away large stretches of beach and stranding tens of thousands of tourists in makeshift shelters for days. Mexico's rescue services have vastly improved their hurricane response plans in recent years. The hurricane centre said John's winds and rain are strong enough to cause life-threatening flooding, severe damage to property and mud slides in mountainous areas. Rainfall of 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm), with isolated deluges of 18 inches (45 cm), were possible along the coast, forecasters said. The busy tourist resort of Acapulco had sea surges of up to 10 feet (3.5 meters) on Wednesday. Seafront roads were ankle-deep in water and people struggled to stay on their feet in winds that knocked down trees. Meanwhile, The U.S. National Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch for a portion of coastline from South Carolina to North Carolina on Thursday as Tropical Storm Ernesto gained strength over the Atlantic.

ITN Source | September 1, 2006

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