Juliette Regains Hurricane Strength
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) - Juliette hovered over the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula Friday, first weakening and then regaining hurricane strength. A fisherman became the latest victim in a storm that has killed at least three people.
Juliette continued to belt the resort town of Cabo San Lucas, smashing docks, ripping off roofs, and tossing uprooted trees into flooded streets. Forecasters said the stalled storm would hang over the region another day.
Late Friday, Juliette's sustained winds rose to 75 mph, just above the 74 mph minimum to qualify as a hurricane. Earlier its maximum sustained winds had fallen to 70 mph, a tropical storm. Calling the turn of events ``rather surprising, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm had again developed an eye.
A fisherman's body was found floating in rough seas Friday near Huatabampo, Sonora, a mainland Mexico port about 250 miles north of Cabo San Lucas, after heavy surf capsized the open boat in which he and two other men were traveling. The other men, the victim's father and brother, made it to shore after the capsize Thursday.
Juliette had killed two people earlier in the week farther south in Mexico - a Denver, Colo. surfer and a fisherman.
As Hurricane Juliette slammed the poorer communities at the tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, it left luxury beachfront resorts mostly unscathed. About 800 people were evacuated from flimsy housing in Cabo San Lucas, a city of 25,000 people, but there were no new reports of major injuries.
Sheets of rain blasted through the open-air lobby of the seaside Solmar resort. Shivering tourists in soaked T-shirts and shorts waited for the local airport to reopen and the restoration of telephone service.
Paul and Carolyn Anderson, both 32, of Hillsboro, Ore., arrived Tuesday at the Solmar to fish for marlin and celebrate their 10th anniversary. They had rented a sea-front room but had only a half-day's sunshine and never went fishing. Finally, the moved to a room overlooking the hotel parking lot where the wind ripped the aluminum roof off a carport.
``It peeled back in strips like a banana,'' Paul Anderson said. ``It's not a holiday, it's an adventure.''
Tom Brock, 52, of Boulder, Colo., had come with his wife, Carol, to celebrate their second wedding anniversary. He said they were itching to get home after Juliette dumped 3 inches of water in their room.
``The wind was so strong we could barely walk,'' Brock said. ``Big gobs of sand the size of my finger were hitting us in the face.''
Things were grimmer for less well-protected local residents.
Jose Luis Aleman Alvarado, 23, his wife and their 9-month-old daughter lost the roof of their wood and tarpaper home. They took refuge at a friend's house.
``We lost nearly everything. Everything got drenched,'' Aleman said.
The hurricane center said Juliette had winds of up to 145 mph earlier in the week, but was down to 85 mph when it arrived off the coast of the peninsula Thursday.
By Friday, it was still strong enough to smash floating docks - one of them 80 yards long - and snap power and phone lines, leaving cables flapping in the wind above streets waist-deep in water.
Juliette's center was about 75 miles west of Cabo San Lucas.
The storm was expected to edge up the Baja California coastline after Saturday. Though it was unlikely to reach the U.S. border, forecasters said it could spread rains into the southwestern United States.
The hurricane center said 6 to 8 inches of rain were likely in the hurricane's path, posing the threat of flash floods and mud slides.
Originally published September 28, 2001.
