Hurricane Odile hammered Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula overnight, tearing away the facades of luxury resorts, shattering countless car and hotel windows and leaving lobbies swamped and full of debris on Monday.
The storm, which made landfall near Cabo San Lucas the previous night as a powerful Category 3 hurricane, toppled trees, power poles and road signs along the main highway, which at one point was swamped by rushing floodwaters. Room windows at the Westin were blown out, mud and rock blocked the entrance to the Club Regina and workers said the Hilton was seriously damaged.
“It’s the entire corridor” between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, said Deneb Poli, a medical worker at the Melia Cabo Real. She said all the hotel’s guests and employees were fine, but electricity and phone lines were cut and cell coverage was spotty. “There are parts of hotels that are completely collapsed. ... The damage is pretty extensive.”
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 110 mph (175 kph) as it moved over the peninsula as a Category 2 hurricane. It was centered about 40 miles (60km) west of La Paz and moving to the north-northwest at 16 mph (26kph).
Odile was forecast to slow down and lose intensity over the next day or so.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/15/hurricane-odile-slams-mexicos-baja-california
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