LOS CABOS GETS BACK TO NORMAL Newton heads for US border
Posted on 09/07/2016 | About Los Cabos, Mexico
The US National Hurricane Center reported early this morning that Newton has made landfall on Mexico's mainland and weakened to a tropical storm on its way to the US border with potentially dangerous rains for Arizona and New Mexico.
The storm's maximum sustained winds early Wednesday are near 70 mph (110 kph) with rapid weakening expected as the centre moves inland.
The storm is centred about 10 miles (15 kilometres) southeast of Bahia Kino, Mexico, and is moving north near 17 mph (28 kph). The Hurricane Center says Newton's forecast track will take it into southeastern Arizona in the afternoon.
It's the second landfall for Newton. The storm came ashore near Mexico's Los Cabos resorts Tuesday morning as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph (150 kph).
Newton was forecast to dump 8 to 12 inches of rain on Baja California Sur state with isolated maximums up to 18 inches, and heavy rains were also expected for five other states.
About 14,000 tourists had remained in Los Cabos as of Monday night as airlines cancelled flights as the storm approached, said Genaro Ruiz, the state tourism secretary. Ruiz said tourists had been advised to remain in their hotels.
Reports from Sunwing’s team on the ground at Los Cabos last evening confirmed there was no major damage at the resorts, which mainly required some clean up. Electricity was working normally, (some hotels had been operating on emergency generators) and the restaurants and facilities at most of the hotels were also back to normal. Earlier some guests had been moved to higher floors as a precaution against flooding. Some palm trees and street signs were down, but the airport was open, and schools will be open today.
On Tuesday evening the skies were clearing and the sun coming out.
Meanwhile, the hurricane centre said the storm could dump 1 to 3 inches of rain over parts of Arizona and New Mexico through Thursday, threatening flash floods and landslides.
