Hurricane Norbert has dumped heavy rains and prompted evacuations as it marched up the coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.
Forecasters said the storm may help bring weekend precipitation to the parched US Southwest.
Baja California Sur state Gov Marcos Covarrubias urged people in vulnerable areas to evacuate and said travelers should stay off highways as the storm roars past. He said most government services would be closed or restricted, and schools in Los Cabos and La Paz were closed yesterday.
At least 1,000 people remained in shelters yesterday afternoon in Los Cabos, where the storm toppled over trees and knocked out electricity in some parts of the resort area.
Firefighters rescued several people from vehicles stranded in flooded streets, said Wenceslao Pettit, Public Safety director in Cabo San Lucas.
Ports in the area popular with US tourists remained closed to navigation and police officers were sent to the evacuated neighborhoods to prevent looting, Pettit added.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said yesterday evening that Norbert had strengthen a bit with maximum sustained winds near 155 kph and it was centered about 95 kilometres south of sparsely populated Cabo San Lazaro.
Forecasters said Norbert, which had reached hurricane strength Wednesday, was headed northwest at 13 kph.
The Hurricane Center said Norbert was helping push moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Dolly across northern Mexico and into the southwestern United States, brining possible heavy rains in coming days.
