Tourists left stranded as 120mph Odile hits Mexico

HURRICANE Odile stormed into the Mexican beach mecca of Baja California yesterday, lashing luxury resorts and ripping trees from their roots as thousands of tourists hunkered down in shelters.

Sightseeing became a disaster movie as tourists were forced to hide in a storm shelter. Picture: AP

Winds of up to 120 miles per hour blew away boards nailed over windows and tore signposts out of the ground, as one of the worst recorded storms to slam the region hammered the popular resort of Los Cabos. Emergency officials feared the hurricane could unleash deadly flash floods as it dumped heavy rains over the southern tip of the mountainous desert peninsula.

Tourists stranded in shelters or hiding in the baths of their rooms posted photos on social media showing windows barricaded with furniture that were blown in by the gusts.

“This is really bad. My ears are about to explode by the pressure and I have an inch of water in my kitchen/living room,” said Sarah McKinney on her Twitter account.

Another woman posted a video on the web showing workmen erecting sheets of chipboard and boarded-up windows shaking.

Dozens of people sat huddled with pillows in the middle of a large room.

“We’ve moved downstairs. These windows didn’t seem to hold hurricane #Odile. I’m sweating like hell. Scary sound of howling wind,” Alba Mora Roca said on her Twitter feed.

At least 26,000 foreign tourists and 4,000 Mexicans were in the region, according to Mexican officials, while emergency workers and military personnel evacuated people from areas at risk of flooding.

The US National Hurricane Center in Miami had earlier said Odile would be a category four hurricane, with winds of up to 135 mph, but it lost some strength as it reached the coast.

Storm experts said Odile was set to be the strongest hurricane to hit the southern tip of the peninsula since Kiko in 1989, which landed as a category three hurricane.

“We haven’t seen one get so close and with the possibility of impact, and of such a nature,” said Wenceslao Petit, head of emergency services in Los Cabos. “There aren’t words for this.”

In Cabo San Lucas, people rushed to board up windows, clear beach furniture and remove fishing boats and yachts from the water into dry docks ahead of the storm’s approach.

“If it doesn’t lose intensity, this is going to do some damage,” said Rosalio Salas, 59, who works at Picante sport fishing charters in Cabo San Lucas.

“The people that live here are used to this, but the people here for the first time are a little scared,” he said.

The storm packed winds of up to 125 miles per hour and Odile was projected to lash southern Baja with strong winds and dump heavy rains today, the hurricane centre said.

Restaurants and businesses in Cabo San Lucas closed ahead of the storm, leaving tourists stuck in hotel rooms and lobbies. While other beaches in Mexico were packed with tourists during the long weekend to today’s Independence Day holiday, the resorts of Los Cabos are mostly visited by Americans and are in their low season. The Mexican government declared a hurricane warning for southern Baja and a tropical storm warning for parts of the Pacific coast.

Mexico’s civil protection agency says 164 shelters had been readied with a capacity for 30,000 people.