Hurricane Lorena bore down Friday on Mexico’s popular tourist destination Los Cabos, where it was forecast to unleash its heavy winds and soaking rains at it passed near the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula.
“If we don’t get the yacht out, the waves can damage it,” said Juan Hernández, who rents his vessel to foreign visitors. It’s “a preventative measure for when a cyclone threatens.”
The National Hurricane Center in Miami upgraded Lorena to a Category 1 hurricane early Friday, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
It was still about 100 miles away, but making its way toward Cabo San Lucas at 9 mph. Forecasters predicted damaging winds, flash floods and life-threatening surf along the peninsula.
A second tropical storm, Mario, was about 365 miles south of the southern tip of the Baja peninsula Friday morning and had sustained winds of 65 mph, though it wasn’t expected to hit land.
Officials suspended classes for Friday and prepared to use schools as shelters if necessary. The port of Cabo San Lucas also was closed to navigation.
“We are taking preventive measures,” said Baja California Sur state government secretary-general Álvaro de la Peña. “Rations, gasoline, all supplies are guaranteed. There is no need for panic buying.”
Meanwhile, in Texas, heavy rains from the remnants of Tropical Depression Imelda flooded low-lying areas and caused at least two deaths.
Hunter Morrison of Jefferson County was “electrocuted and drowned” while trying to move his horse, while in Harris County, which includes Houston, a man drowned after driving his van into floodwaters, according to ABC News.
The National Weather Service said preliminary estimates suggested that Jefferson County in the Lone Star State got more than 40 inches of rain in just 72 hours.
That would make it the seventh-wettest tropical cyclone in American history.
Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Jerry strengthened into a hurricane Thursday as it moved west toward Puerto Rico along a path already followed this year by Hurricanes Dorian and Humberto.
Jerry’s center was expected to pass north of Puerto Rico on Saturday and east-northeast of the southeastern Bahamas on Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
With Post wires
