Hurricane Juliette Bears Down on Baja
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) - Howling winds and roaring waves from Hurricane Juliette bore down on tourist resorts at the tip of the Baja California peninsula on Thursday, knocking out power and smashing docks to driftwood.
A surfer from Denver, 45-year-old William Creson, drowned in 10-foot waves as the storm approached on Wednesday.
The winds blew the roofs off of shacks in poor neighborhoods and sparks cascaded from shorted-out power transformers. Thursday's 15-foot waves destroyed docks.
Emergency workers were called off the streets amid danger from downed power lines and flying sheets of tin roofing, said Red Cross supervisor Ruben Rauda.
Gabriel Reyes Martinez, 22, was sleeping in his home of cardboard and corrugated metal Thursday morning when he heard his pregnant wife scream and woke up to find the roof on his house flying away.
``She was hysterical,'' Reyes said. ``We saw the roof jump and then jump again and take off. It fell 45 feet from the house but thank God it didn't hurt any one else.''
Reyes and his family took refuge at an improvised shelter in a local school.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the Juliette's eye was expected to slip west of the peninsula, but it still could rake the region with hurricane-force winds.
Juliette's strongest winds fell to 85 mph Thursday after reaching 145 mph. Tropical storms are classified as hurricanes after reaching 74 mph.
Juliette was centered about 50 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the peninsula, but hurricane-force winds extend 60 miles from its center and tropical-storm force winds reach out 230 miles.
Civil defense officials said they were evacuating 800 people to schools serving as emergency shelters. Hurricane warnings were extended to cover the southern half the Baja peninsula, and parts of mainland Mexico across the Gulf of California.
Tourists joined locals in hunting for emergency supplies of water and groceries in the few stores still open in this city of 25,000.
Computer consultant Peter Nunan, 43, of San Jose, Calif., peered out at the storm from the waterfront and mourned his luck.
He said he had been through typhoons in Japan and Taiwan on a business trip earlier this month. ``Now I can't believe I'm being hit by a hurricane.''
He said most of the people in his tour group had not arrived because the local airport had closed. Many local hotels were almost empty because of travel restrictions or fear spawned by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
``Being from Texas, we know the damage one of these can cause,'' said Jim Kelly, 46, a Houston stock broker. Kelly said he was planning to use the time to ask his girlfriend to marry him: ``I'll probably ask her at the height of the storm.''
Juliette was moving north at about 9 mph, but the forecasters said it should continue to weaken and turn away from the coast to the northwest.
The hurricane center said 5 to 7 inches of rain was likely in the hurricane's path, posing the threat of flash floods and mud slides.
Heavy rain brought by Juliette earlier flooded more than 200 homes in the southwestern state of Michoacan and a fisherman died near Acapulco when his small open boat capsized in high seas on Monday.
Originally published September 27, 2001.
