Hurricane Jimena Aims at Mexico Resorts

(AP)  Updated at 3:02 a.m. Eastern.

Emergency workers struggled to evacuate thousands of reluctant slum dwellers as extremely dangerous Hurricane Jimena approached Mexico's resort-studded Baja California Peninsula on Tuesday.

Jimena, just short of the most severe Category 5 status with winds of near 155 mph, could rake the harsh desert region fringed with picturesque beaches and fishing villages as a major storm by Tuesday evening.

Police, firefighters and navy personnel drove through shantytowns, trying to persuade some 10,000 people to evacuate shacks made of plastic sheeting, wood, reeds and even blankets.

"For the safety of you and your family, board a vehicle or head to the nearest shelter," firefighter Ricardo Villalobos bellowed over a loudspeaker as his fire truck wound its way through the sand streets of Colonia Obrera, a slum built along a stream bed that regularly springs to life when a hurricane hits.

Asked how many people were paying attention, he noted wryly, "not many."

Many residents feared that their few possessions - a TV, radio or refrigerator - would be stolen if they left.

Jose Miguel Leyva, a cab driver, nailed another plastic sheet to his rickety wood framed shack, vowing to stick it out as long as he could.

"We're putting all we can into the house," Leyva said. "They told us to go to a shelter. If it gets bad maybe we will. We can go in my car."

Roberto Hernandez, a community organizer, said he and other activists had formed a security brigade to ride out the storm and watch over their neighbors' possessions. "A lot of times, people steal their furniture, or whatever they can find," Hernandez said.

But Miguel Angel Juarez, an unemployed iron worker, packed clothing and his countertop gas grill into the trunk of his car before taking his family to a shelter.

"I'm not staying here," he said, eyeing the streambed that runs a few feet from his front door. "They say that when it rains here, this becomes a river."

The government warned that those who refuse to evacuate would be forced to do so.

(CBS/NOAA/National Hurricane Center)

At left: A satellite image released by NOAA shows the powerful Hurricane Jimena just south of Mexico's Baja peninsula at 2:00 a.m. Eastern, Sept. 1, 2009.

"We are going to start by inviting people to leave ... the moment will come when we will have to make it obligatory," said Garibaldo Romero, interior secretary for the municipal government.

After official hurricane warnings were broadcast, organizers of an international financial meeting scheduled for Cabo San Lucas this week decided to move their conference - including more than 170 representatives from 54 countries - to Mexico City.

"The meeting has been planned for two months and the meteorological conditions, by their very nature, are unpredictable," said Anthony Gooch, spokesman for the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information, sponsored by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Many tourists rushed to leave, leaving hotels with a 25 percent occupancy rate, according to the local hotel association. The group estimated 7,000 tourists were left in Los Cabos.

But on Cabos' famous beaches, some tourists were doing just the opposite, jumping into the Pacific to play in the hurricane's big waves.

Although city officials shut down the port, lifeguard Roman Dominguez with the Cabo San Lucas Fire Department said there's no feasible way to close a beach.

"We struggle a lot with surfers," he said. "They're looking for waves."

Lifeguards perched in a tower looked on Monday as two women, one with her boogie board, another on a surf board, paddled into pounding surf under cloudy skies.

Clay Hurst, 52, a fencing contractor from Malibu, California, and Ben Saltzman, 28, an emergency medical technician from Pacific Palisades, California, emerged from a swim in the 10-to-12-foot waves and pounding surf.

"We are waiting anxiously, wanting to be right in the middle of it," said Hurst, who said he has never seen a hurricane as powerful as Jimena.

"We were advised to leave, but we want to be here," he said. "I've always wanted to be in one ... a real bad one."

Saltzman echoed his friend's enthusiasm: "It's an adrenaline rush," he said.

On Monday evening, Jimena was a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph and was moving northwest near 9 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It was centered about 245 miles south of Cabo San Lucas.

Hurricanes reach Category 5 at 156 mph.

Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Kevin weakened to a tropical depression with top winds of 35 mph. It was centered 840 miles west-southwest of the Baja peninsula's southern tip.

[lloydbest1]

1400 update from the NHC:

Jimena has weakened considerably. Now a strong Cat 3 storm she still looks formidable in the satellite and IR loops. Central pressure is now at 28.08 inches. and she's moving north-northwest at around 12 mph. The rain shield has long since arrived at Cabo and the SMN (Mexican Weather Service) reports heavy rain, lightning and sustained winds around 50 mph. No word on storm surges or beach erosion but wind waves are in the neighborhood of 9 to 15 feet. La Paz has had something like an inch of rain since midnight though winds there are still fairly light. That will change as the hurricane nears.

The forcast track our national hurricane center is using has pushed her path slightly west and the expected landfall point is now at or near Bahia de Ballenas. She will still pass close enough to Puerto San Carlos to give it lots of grief. Once on land she is expected to track diagonally and hook a little farther east hitting the Sea of Cortez near Angel island sometime Friday afternoon.

Other forcast models differ wildly as to Ms. J's trajectory after landfall. The GFS has her making a hard westard turn and blowing herself out to sea just north of the border between Baja California and B.C. Sur. The UK model has her hugging the coast line of Baja Sur then going "poof" in the the bay of Sebastian Vizcaino. NOGAPS has her turning hard to the east and running right over the top of Hermosillo in Sonora before dying completely somewhere in eastern Arizona. The point here is, right now all we know for sure is Jimena is going to do what she dam' well pleases and is going to soak the entire territory thoroughly while doing it...

...Both our service and the Mexican's call for rainfall amounts of 6 to 8 inches in the lowlands and up to 15 inches in the hills eastward. In a region that seldom gets that much rainfall in a year this deluge will trigger flash flooding, washouts and mudslides out the wazoo. If that isn't enough to think about, the moon is coming close to full and that extra tug on an already high predicted storm surge during those 2 or so hours around noon and midnight will push the ocean even farther on land. People should think very carefully about possible consequences should they decide not to seek shelter.

[wyodutch]

Prety neat that a hurricane has been named after that iconic advertising symbol of a pancake mix!!!

[erasmus111]

I think that you are thinking of a different name.

[JVgirl]

The hurricane is named Jimena, not Jemima!

[bubbadubba]

Now Mexican hurricanes are top news and reported as if they are hitting major US cities because there are none headed for US cities.
What next from the so called US media?
Lame.

[pensacola8-2009]

The folks in Texas just might be getting their much needed rain in a day or two.

Pacific hurricanes that strike Mexico in September, October and November months often dump copius amounts of rain for days in Texas, although a thousand miles from the Pacific coast. Some meteorologists call the phenomena "training" where moisture is picked up in one area and dropped in another.

[ABM_21]

Quick, close the border! Now, they think they have an excuse to come over here---illegally---and stay!

[sparkbox]

We are waiting anxiously, wanting to be right in the middle of it," said Hurst, who said he has never seen a hurricane as powerful as Jimena.

"We were advised to leave, but we want to be here," he said. "I've always wanted to be in one ... a real bad one."

Saltzman echoed his friend's enthusiasm: "It's an adrenaline rush," he said.
____________________________________________________
Obviously these adrenaline junkies have never had to experience the aftermath of a major hurricane. No running water, no electricity,scarce law enforcement,little transportation, storm damage, looting etc.
I wanted to experience a major hurricane too but after having done so, I won't be looking for another one. Good luck.

[Solarrays247]

sparkbox September 1, 2009 9:54 AM EDT
We are waiting anxiously, wanting to be right in the middle of it," said Hurst, who said he has never seen a hurricane as powerful as Jimena.

"We were advised to leave, but we want to be here," he said. "I've always wanted to be in one ... a real bad one."

Saltzman echoed his friend's enthusiasm: "It's an adrenaline rush," he said.
____________________________________________________
Obviously these adrenaline junkies have never had to experience the aftermath of a major hurricane. No running water, no electricity,scarce law enforcement,little transportation, storm damage, looting etc.
I wanted to experience a major hurricane too but after having done so, I won't be looking for another one. Good luck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

sparkbox, I can't believe these idiots!!! I experienced Hurricane Andrew when it hit South Florida in August, 1992! People felt thankful for SURVIVING that Level 5 hurricane, and coming out alive! Many didn't!! And then, of course, the aftermath being as you described!

Idiots!!! They know not what they say!!! LOL

[bubbadubba]

Jimena crickets, a hurricane is coming!

[bajajohn1]

About stealing things from homes by Mexicans taking advantage of evacuations: that is true, but it is also true that pillaging occurs after every natural disaster almost anywhere in the world.