Weakening Odile pushes up Mexico's Baja California
By ALBA MORA ROCA, Associated Press
Sep 16, 2014 12:15 PM CDT
People loot a convenience store destroyed by Hurricane Odile, in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. Hurricane Odile hammered Mexico's Baja California Peninsula overnight, damaging homes and tearing away the facades of luxury resorts, shattering countless car and hotel windows and leaving lobbies...   (Associated Press)

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — A weakening Tropical Storm Odile pushed up Mexico's Baja California Peninsula on Tuesday, dumping heavy rains that could bring dangerous flash floods and mudslides but also a potential boon to the drought-stricken region.

Mexico's government said army and commercial planes would be sent to La Paz and Los Cabos airports to ferry out some of the tens of thousands of tourists stranded in temporary shelters in hotels.

Los Cabos international airport was damaged by the storm. Mexican television showed the terminal full of debris.

President Enrique Pena Nieto was scheduled to fly to the area later in the day after presiding over a military parade marking Mexico's independence day.

Charly Park, 52, flew in from Los Angeles on Sunday but instead of checking into his hotel room, he and his wife spent the night at a cramped, hot shelter.

"It's a horrible experience, no air conditioning, no fans ... the power lines all fell down," Park said.

Emergency officials in Baja California reported that 135 people were treated for minor injuries from flying glass or falling objects, but there were no serious injuries or deaths so far. About 30,000 tourists were in temporary shelters.

Odile made landfall near Cabo San Lucas late Sunday as a powerful Category 3 hurricane before rapidly weakening. It toppled trees and road signs along the main highway, which at one point was flooded by rushing waters. Windows were blown out of high-end hotel rooms and resort facades crumbled to the ground.

Most of the area's power poles were blown over, leaving 239,000 people in the state of Baja California Sur without electricity, said Luis Felipe Puente, national coordinator for Civil Protection.

"In the seven years I've been here, I've never seen anything hit like this," said Alejandro Tealdi, a 32-year-old resident of Cabo San Lucas whose home was damaged.

Many homes and businesses were reduced to shells with only the core structure intact. The walls of an OfficeMax collapsed into the parking lot. A convenience store was torn apart with the contents of its shelves dumped to the ground, and some locals helped themselves to food, water and other goods.

In Colonia Unidad Real, a neighborhood that sprang up years ago in a former creek bed, hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed with debris scattered everywhere.

After spending a harrowing night with her in-laws, Graciela Castillo Monroy, 44, and her family returned to find the roof of their home gone and all but two of its cinderblock walls collapsed. They piled what belongings could be salvaged atop a soggy mattress and began picking up the pieces.

"Well, time to start over again," Monroy said.

Even after weakening to a tropical storm, Odile continued to lash the state of Baja California Sur with strong winds and heavy rains as it marched northward.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds near 60 mph (95 kph) on Tuesday. It was centered about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Bahia de Los Angeles, Mexico, and was moving to the north-northwest near 9 mph (15 kph).

Odile was expected to drop 6 to 12 inches of rain with isolated accumulations of 18 inches, threatening to unleash dangerous flash floods and landslides.

Farther south in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Polo formed off southern Mexico early Tuesday. It was located about 285 miles (460 kilometers) south of Acapulco, and had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph). Polo was moving northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). The hurricane center predicted that Polo could become a hurricane later in the week, and it could follow a track similar to Odile's.

Meanwhile in the central Atlantic, Hurricane Edouard strengthened to a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph (185 kph), although it was forecast to remain far out at sea and pose no threat to land.

The U.S. hurricane center said Edouard's center was 420 miles (675 kilometers) east-southeast of Bermuda early Tuesday and was moving north-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).

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Associated Press writers Peter Orsi and Alberto Arce in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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