MEXICO: Hurricane Lane lashes Mexico's Pacific coast with heavy rain, putting thousands at risk for flooding

Powerful Hurricane Lane thrashed western Mexico on Saturday (September 16), threatening tens of thousands of people with flash floods and causing a second death on the Pacific coast. Some two thousand people in the state of Sinaloa rushed to evacuation shelters as the storm slammed into a low-lying coastal area between the city of Culiacan and the tourist resort of Mazatlan. Lane arrived as a dangerous Category 3 hurricane but weakened as it moved inland, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a Category 1 storm with top sustained winds near 90 mph (145 kph). Local authorities were concerned about flooding and landslides from heavy rain. The mayor of Culiacan, Aaron Irizar Lopez, told Mexican radio the rains were "impressive". He said between 40,000 and 50,000 people in Sinaloa who lived near rivers and streams might be at risk. Many of the state's reservoirs were in danger of overflowing, he said. One man died in the village of Pueblos Unidos when he was knocked over by fierce winds, police said. Lane earlier killed a 7-year-old boy by triggering a rockfall in Acapulco. Fifty people, many of them children, took shelter in a local government building in a park in Culiacan because their poorly built homes might not stand up to the weather. "I came here [to the shelter] because I was alone with the children and the house does not have any protection. I was along and I came here," said resident Rosalba Juarez. The storm had been expected to move up through the Sea of Cortez and make landfall farther north on Sunday but it swung suddenly to the east and crashed into the coastline. Tourists and residents in the exclusive beach resort of Los Cabos at the tip of the Baja California peninsula breathed a sigh of relief as it escaped damage from a hurricane for the second time in two weeks. Also on Saturday, Tropical Storm Miriam formed southwest of the peninsula, although it was not expected to make landfall. Extending south from the U.S. state of California, the peninsula is still reeling from Hurricane John, which killed at least three people when it struck there earlier this month. Los Cabos, made up of the two towns of Cabo San Jose and Cabo San Lucas, sent thousands of tourists packing two weeks ago as Hurricane John approached, but it had a narrow escape.

ITN Source | September 17, 2006

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