Hurricane Polo Strikes Sonora After Soaking Baja California
Hurricane Polo hit Mexico's Sonora state after drenching Baja California Sur, causing property damage but no deaths, as its remnants threaten heavy rain in the US Southwest.
Hurricane Polo made landfall on Mexico's northwestern Pacific coast on Tuesday, striking near the port city of Guaymas on the Sea of Cortez in Sonora state, after earlier drenching the southern Baja California peninsula.
State authorities ordered emergency evacuations in southern municipalities including Guaymas, Empalme, Benito Juarez and Vicam. Officials said 543 people took refuge in shelters as the storm came ashore.
Polo, a Category 1 hurricane, was inland by 10 a.m. local time (1600 GMT), with the US National Hurricane Center reporting maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph (120 km/h).
"Rapid weakening is expected as the center of Polo moves farther inland," the NHC said in its bulletin.
While the hurricane was forecast to weaken over land, private forecaster AccuWeather warned that its moisture-laden remnants could trigger a deluge across the US Southwest and Plains.
Damage but no casualties in Baja
Polo had earlier battered the Baja California peninsula as a more powerful Category 2 storm, turning streets into rivers and snapping trees. Baja California Sur Governor Victor Manuel Castro said no lives were lost.
The storm was expected to dump 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) of rain across southern and central Sonora, with isolated maximum totals of 8 inches. Baja California Sur could face a further 1 to 2 inches and the risk of life-threatening flooding and mudslides, according to the NHC.
"At my house we tied all down. We prepared very well. We expected it to be stronger, but thank God it wasn't so disastrous," said Bertha Lopez, a resident of Loreto in Baja California Sur.
Nearly 700 people sought refuge in emergency shelters in Baja California Sur and will return home throughout the day, the head of Mexico's civil protection agency, Laura Velazquez, said at a press conference.
In a post on X, Mexico's Secretariat of the Navy said a ship delivered 2,000 food baskets, 8,000 liters of drinking water and machinery to the region, among other supplies.