Only light damage in wake of hurricane
Hurricane warning extended in Sonora, from Guaymas to Puerto Libertad
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Hurricane Newton swept across Baja California Sur today, leaving little damage in its wake and causing no loss of life.
The category 1 hurricane left 55% of the Federal Electricity Commission’s 110,000 customers in Los Cabos and La Paz without power, but service is expected to be fully restored by tomorrow.
As of 3:00pm MDT Newton was located over Baja California Sur about 25 kilometers south-southwest of Loreto and 250 kilometers south-southwest of Guaymas, Sonora. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the cyclone would continue to pass over Baja California Sur for the next few hours before emerging over the Sea of Cortéz.
It should reach the coast of Sonora, where a hurricane warning is in effect from Guaymas to Puerto Libertad, by early tomorrow.
The NHC said winds at the center of the hurricane were 120 km/h. It was moving north-northwest at 30 km/h and is forecast to make a turn to the north tonight. Little change in strength is expected before it makes landfall for the second time, after which it should weaken.
Hurricane conditions can be expected for the warning area on the Sonora coast by early Wednesday morning.
Apart from fallen trees and utility poles, the only damage reported so far has been caused by looters, but even that has not amounted to much. There were five attempts to loot Oxxo, Soriana, Costco and City Club stores but only at an Oxxo store in Cabo San Lucas were thieves successful in removing products from the shelves.
But doors and windows were broken in the attempts. Municipal and Federal Police were deployed to various stores to prevent further incidents.
Not only have there been no deaths reported as a result of the hurricane, there has not been a single injury in Los Cabos, said Mayor Arturo de la Rosa Escalante. Nor has there been any flooding but that could change as the rainfall drains from the sierra.
There were some mudslides reported but no highways were closed.
Hurricane Newton was also accompanied by the loss of telephone service throughout Baja California Sur, but it turned out to have nothing to do with the storm. Telmex said that the loss of service early this morning followed the severing of a fiber optic cable in Ciudad Constitución by vandals.
The incident affected cellular phone and internet service as well as fixed-line phones for about six hours, the phone company said.
Source: BCS Noticias (sp), Reforma (sp)
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