Hurricane Jimena weakened to a Category Two storm early on Wednesday as it closed in on Mexico's Baja California peninsula, US forecasters said.

The storm's top winds decreased to 165 kilometers per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, adding it would continue to weaken prior to making landfall as a hurricane.

Early on Tuesday, it had been on the threshold of becoming a Category Five hurricane, the top of the Saffir-Simpson scale.

But Mexican National Weather Service meteorologist Dario Rodriguez told AFP that Jimena "maintains a high level of danger."

The hurricane was expected to make landfall on the southern tip of the peninsula on Wednesday and on central Baja California late Wednesday and on Thursday, forecasters said.

Jimena lost strength a day after howling winds and strong rains lashed Baja California, sending tourists fleeing from resort towns, although many villagers ignored appeals to evacuate and hunkered down to tough it out.

"This phenomenon is unprecedented. In the history of the peninsula, we have not had a storm of the force of Jimena," Jose Gajon, director of the Baja California Sur civil protection service, said in a local radio interview.

"Many places are totally inundated and cut off and that's even before the storm has really made its presence felt."

Evacuated by force?

As last-minute thrill-seekers dipped into the massive surf of Palmilla Beach, officials struggled to convince local inhabitants of the poor, largely arid and mountainous spit of land that they must seek emergency shelter.

"Unfortunately, we have families who are refusing to leave their homes, so if it becomes necessary, they will be evacuated by force for their own good," warned Francisco Cota, civil defense chief in Los Cabos.

Authorities said they had succeeded in evacuating some 15 000 families judged to be living in high-risk zones — prone to flooding or near the coast — but thousands more remained.

The federal government discontinued its hurricane warning for the southern tip of the peninsula but it remained in effect elsewhere in Baja California.

Across the region, tourists fled in droves and the local hotel association estimated that some 7000 would have left or been evacuated by the time the storm arrived.

As the first major gusts hit, residents of Los Cabos frantically boarded up their homes and stocked up on last-minute provisions before rushing home to ride out the storm.

"I just came out to buy water, and I had to come all the way to the supermarket because the local shops were closed," said Laura Perez. "I heard the hurricane is almost here, right? As soon as I get my water, I'm going home."

In nearby Puerto San Carlos, a fishing village of 4000 people further north and directly on Jimena's path, work continued as normal at a local sardine plant.

"We are still not prepared. They just told us today to start bringing people to shelters," one laborer told AFP.

In the exclusive resort town of Los Cabos, which is mostly frequented by American tourists, luxury hotels had sluggish activity, while beaches, ports and the airport were closed to the public there and throughout the state.

Over 2000 foreign tourists left Los Cabos on Monday and onTuesday, out of the more than 8000 present at this upscale resort destination.

The US State Department issued a travel alert urging caution for people traveling to areas lying in the storm's path.

'Dangerous' storm looms

Jimena was expected to bring up to 15 centimeters of rain in some isolated areas, and 13 to 25 centimeters over the southern half of the peninsula and portions of Western Mexico.

These rains, the NHC said, "could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides."

A "dangerous" storm surge, coupled with "large and dangerous battering waves" will unleash significant coastal flooding along the Baja California peninsula, the Center added.

Churning north-northwestward near 20 kph, the storm was centered 110 km south-southeast of Cabo San Lazaro as of 0900 GMT, forecasters said.

Meanwhile, a disorganized Tropical Storm Erika inched closer to the Northern Leeward Islands, where it was expected to make landfall or pass close by "during the next day or so," the NHC said.

Island governments across the region issued storm warnings in preparation for the arrival of Erika, which was moving westward at seven kph with top winds at 85 kph some 455 km east-southeast of the Northern Leeward Islands.

AFP

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