Hurricane Polo Nears Baja California, Second Landfall Expected in Sonora

Hurricane Polo bore down on Mexico's Baja California Sur on Monday evening, poised to strike the peninsula's Pacific coastline with destructive winds, flash floods and a storm surge before crossing into the mainland.

At 5 p.m. local time (0000 GMT), the US National Hurricane Center said Polo was expected to make its first landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. The projected strike zone lies well away from the heavily populated Los Cabos resort corridor at the southern tip of the peninsula.

The storm is then forecast to cross the Gulf of California and hit southern Sonora state early on Tuesday while still at hurricane strength, before weakening rapidly over land.

Residents in communities along Polo's path cleared supermarket shelves over the weekend, stocking up on water, diapers, milk and other essentials as shopkeepers boarded up storefronts. Authorities closed beaches on Monday, halted maritime activity in high-risk areas and opened temporary shelters.

Polo's reach could extend beyond Mexico. The NHC issued a wind advisory for parts of southern New Mexico and far west Texas through Tuesday night, anticipating that the storm's remnants would push inland. The National Weather Service in El Paso said tropical moisture from Polo and the earlier Pacific storm Odalys could flow into the US Southwest and central states this week, bringing several days of heavy to excessive rainfall and possible flooding.

General Motors suspended production at its Ramos Arizpe assembly plant in Coahuila on Monday because of disruption linked to Polo, and said it expects normal operations to resume on Tuesday.

Trailing behind Polo, Tropical Storm Rachel strengthened slightly off Mexico's southwestern Pacific coast. At 6 p.m. local time (0000 GMT), the NHC said Rachel was about 250 miles (400 km) southwest of the resort town of Acapulco and 345 miles (555 km) south-southeast of the port hub of Manzanillo, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph).

The storm is forecast to crawl offshore along the coast of southwestern Mexico while strengthening into a hurricane by midweek.