 | | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2008 
Hurricane Norbert Slams Mexico as Category 2
 Associated Press
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Upadate: As Norbert bore down on Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula, it gathered strength overnight and was classified as a Category 3 hurricane early Saturday.
Puerto San Carlos, Mexico — Norbert bore down on Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula Saturday as powerful Category 2 hurricane, as hotels warned tourists to stay away from beaches and fishermen hauled boats from the water.
Norbert, with winds of up to 110 mph (155 kph), was expected to hit land along a relatively unpopulated stretch north of the resort of Cabo San Lucas and then make a second landfall Saturday night in northwestern Mexico's mainland — possibly still as a hurricane, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Paula Lucero Aviles set out with six children and four other adults in a small fishing boat late Friday when they got a cellphone call warning them to return to the Mexican port city of San Carlos, where the skies had already turned dark.
"We turned back because they warned us bad weather was coming," Aviles said. "We would have been risking our lives. It is coming on strong."
A hurricane warning was issued for the west coast of Baja California from Puerto San Andresito to Agua Blanca. The government also issued hurricane warnings along the coast of the border state of Sonora and on the east coast of the Baja peninsula from near La Paz north to Loreto.
As of 8 a.m. ET (Noon GMT), the hurricane's center was located about 80 miles (130 kms) south of Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico, and was moving north-northeast at 15 mph (24 kph).
The storm's remnants were expected to dump more rain on water-logged West Texas, where authorities were preparing for more flooding.
State and local officials plan to activate an emergency operations center Monday in Presidio, where an earthen levee is struggling to hold back the swollen Rio Grande.
The Governor of Baja California Sur state, Narciso Agundez, said officials here are "very worried."
Under overcast skies in Baja California, fishermen hauled their boats onto beaches in La Paz, a port town on the peninsula's eastern coast. Yellow flags on beaches warned people to stay out of the water.
Eli and Claudia Tubia, on vacation from Texarkana, Texas, took a cruise Wednesday night despite the coming storm, but their hotel in resort-dotted Cabo San Lucas was already storing outdoor furniture and paintings.
"They kind of cleared out the beach, and the restaurants that they have on the beach, they took all the furnishings away," Eli Tubia said.
Meanwhile in southern Mexico, Tropical Storm Odile was approaching the resort of Acapulco, but was expected to remain offshore.
The government extended a tropical storm warning from Lagunas de Chacahua westward past Acapulco and Zihuatanejo to Punta San Telmo, as Odile moved parallel to the Pacific coast with winds of about 65 mph (100 kph).
Odile was located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west-southwest of Acapulco, and was moving northwest at about 14 mph (22 kph). Odile could become a hurricane, and a small deviation in its path could bring the storm inland, the hurricane center said.
Forecasters said Odile would sweep close to land on Saturday and could dump as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain, threatening dangerous mudslides.
Odile has already caused flooding in Acapulco and forced officials to cancel classes at local schools.
Civil defense officials in the southern state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, urged about 10,000 people living along river banks or other dangerous areas to evacuate. |
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