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Thousands flee Mexico coast as Jimena bears down
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Thousands flee Mexico coast as Jimena bears down
AFP - Wednesday, September 2
LOS CABOS, Mexico (AFP) - - An extremely dangerous Hurricane Jimena roared toward Baja California on Tuesday, prompting emergency evacuations for residents and scaring off tourists.
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Jimena was packing winds of up to 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour, just short of a Category Five hurricane, as it approached the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
US forecasters put Jimena at a Category Four on the one-to-five Saffir-Simpson scale, but noted that the storm was "very near the threshold of Category Five status."
A meteorologist with Mexico's National Weather Service told AFP the hurricane was expected to make landfall as a Category Three storm late Tuesday around 11:00 pm (0500 GMT Wednesday) on the peninsula's southern Baja California Sur state.
Just across the Gulf of California, Sonora and Sinaloa states were also on a preventative alert for the hurricane.
The Mexican government extended its hurricane warning northward along the Baja Peninsula's west coast to Puerto San Andresito and on the east coast to Loreto.
A hurricane warning remained in effect for the southern portion of the peninsula, from Bahia Magdalena southward on the west coast, and from San Evaristo southward on the east coast, including popular tourist spot Cabo San Lucas. A hurricane watch was active elsewhere on the peninsula.
"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the NHC warned, noting that conditions were expected to deteriorate later Tuesday in the southern portion of the area affected by the warning.
With gusty winds and rains already hitting La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, residents were hastily boarding up windows and stockpiling groceries as the most powerful hurricane of the year so far approached.
"I'm leaving Los Cabos, advancing my departure, because I know a lot about hurricanes. I'm a Florida native and I know its effects," one fleeing American, Jesse Short, told AFP at the airport.
More than a thousand foreign tourists fled Los Cabos, a resort town on the southern tip of Baja California, which was placed on high alert as emergency officials prepared contingency plans.
The local hotel association estimated that some 7,000 tourists would be evacuated before the storm was expected to make landfall on the resort-filled peninsula, which spears south from the US state of California into the Pacific.
Los Cabos International Airport manager Martin Pablo Zazueta told AFP the airport would be closed starting early Tuesday.
But a defiant Gregory Smith, from New York, quipped: "Many Americans are leaving, but I'm going to stay here."
Any evacuation plan would focus on densely populated areas and valleys at greatest risk of flooding, with more than 20,000 families affected, according to Los Cabos civil protection agency chief Francisco Cota.
The threat of "severe damage" from the storm had the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development move a major international conference on tax transparency from Los Cabos to Mexico City.
US meteorologists said Jimena could produce up to 38 centimeters (15 inches) of rain in isolated areas, and a total of 13 to 25 centimeters (five to 10 inches) over the southern half of the Baja California peninsula and parts of western Mexico on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The US State Department urged caution before risking travel to areas of Mexico and the parts of the United States lying in the storm's path.
"US citizens located in areas likely to be impacted by Hurricane Jimena and who do not have access to adequate and safe shelter should consider departing while commercial flights are still available," it said in an alert.
The center of the hurricane was 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Cabo San Lucas as of 0900 GMT Tuesday, according to the NHC. It was moving north-northwestward at about 19 kilometers per hour (12 miles per hour) and will approach the southern portion of Baja California later Tuesday.
Although Jimena's strength would fluctuate in the coming days, it was expected to make landfall as a major hurricane, according to the NHC, which warned that a "dangerous storm surge" with "battering waves" could bring significant flooding along the peninsula.
Flooding and landslides were reported over the weekend in southern Mexican states as the hurricane churned its way up the Pacific coast.
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