Jimena now a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean

[samanthajane13]

MIAMI – Forecasters say Jimena has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane off Mexico's southern Pacific coast.

The National Hurricane Center says Jimena could intensify and become a major hurricane by Sunday.

The hurricane was 285 miles (455 km) southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, and 335 miles (535 km) south-southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico. Jimena was moving to the west-northwest at about 9 mph. Winds had increased to 80 mph Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, a tropical depression had formed far out in the Pacific with winds at 35 mph. It was swirling 1,010 miles (1,625 km) southwest of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. It was expected to move toward the north and wasn't likely to threaten land.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090829/...ltZW5hbm93YWh1

[samanthajane13]

Jimena strengthens to Category 4 storm in Pacific

MIAMI – Forecasters say Jimena is now a dangerous Category 4 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast, and it may intensify even more as it swirls offshore.

The National Hurricane Center says people in western Mexico and the southern part of Mexico's Baja California peninsula are being advised to monitor Jimena. The center's track shows the storm could make landfall by Wednesday on the Baja California peninsula.

On Sunday, it had maximum sustained winds near 135 mph (215 kmh) and was moving northwest near 9 mph (15 kph.) It was centered about 285 miles (460 km) south of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico.

Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Kevin still has top winds of 50 mph (85 kph). The storm's center is about 960 miles (1,540 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California.

(This version CORRECTS that Jimena is now a Category 4 storm in headline.)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090830/...opical_weather

[samanthajane13]

Category 4 hurricane threatens Mexico's west coast
By LORENA MOGUEL, Associated Press Writer Lorena Moguel, Associated Press Writer – 18 mins ago

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – Jimena strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane off Mexico's Pacific coast Sunday, and forecasters said it could hit the Baja California peninsula as a major storm in the coming days.

Jimena kicked up surf along the northwestern coast and generated strong winds that bent trees in the resort town of Zihuatanejo, uprooting at least one. Strong waves and wind prevented a couple on a boat from reaching port, forcing them to spend the night at sea, said Zihuatanejo coast guard official Jose Angel Lara.

If Jimena stays on its northwestern track, it would carry hurricane-force winds to the tip of resort-dotted Baja California by late Monday and slam into the peninsula by Wednesday morning, said Richard Pasch, a senior specialist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.

Pasch said Jimena's path "is subject to some uncertainty" and that it is difficult to predict exactly how strong the storm will be when it nears Baja.

"I think it's going to be a substantial hurricane by the time it approaches," he said.

On Sunday afternoon, Jimena had maximum sustained winds near 140 mph (220 kmh) and was moving west northwest at 8 mph (13 kph.)

It was centered about 270 miles (440 kms) south of Cabo Corrientes, a coastal town in the western state of Jalisco.

Authorities in Cabo Corrientes were setting up shelters in case of heavier wind and rain, said Arturo Garcia, an official with Jalisco's Civil Protection agency.

The U.S. hurricane center issued a public advisory for residents in western Mexico and the southern part of the Baja peninsula to keep tabs on Jimena.

Economists from around the world were scheduled to attend a conference sponsored by the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday and Wednesday in Los Cabos at the southern tip of the peninsula. It was not clear if the conference will still take place; the organization's office was closed Sunday.

Farther out in the Pacific, a weakening Tropical Storm Kevin had top winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and was centered about 940 miles (1,515 kms) southwest of the Baja peninsula's southern tip.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090830/...F0ZWdvcnk0aHVy

[samanthajane13]

Hurricane stronger, heads for Mexico's Los Cabos
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 41 mins ago

LOS CABOS, Mexico – Extremely dangerous Hurricane Jimena roared toward Mexico's resort-studded Baja California Peninsula on Monday, prompting emergency workers to set up makeshift shelters and chasing away an international finance conference.

Jimena is just short of Category 5 status — the top danger rating for a hurricane — and could rake the harsh desert region fringed with picturesque beaches and fishing villages as a major storm by Tuesday evening, forecasters said. Heavy bands of intermittent rain moved across the resort town of Los Cabos on Monday evening.

Workers at the Cabo San Lucas marina nailed sheets of plywood on storefront windows while fishermen secured their boats ahead of Jimena, which was packing winds near 155 mph (250 kph). Hotels and restaurants gathered up umbrellas, tables, chairs, and anything else that might be blown away.

At least 10,000 families were ordered to evacuate their homes in low-lying areas and shantytowns, said Apolinar Ledezma, the municipal public safety director.

The government said it would send out 200 military personnel and dozens of police in trucks to help people reach dozens of shelters. Authorities warned that those who refuse to evacuate would be forced to do so.

"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.

Brenda Munoz, who lost her home to a 2001 hurricane, was taking no chances.

"I remember when Hurricane Juliette hit with a lot of intensity. It flattened our home," Munoz said in the vacation town of Cabo San Lucas. This time, she said, "We're already prepared with food and everything so it won't catch us off guard."

As rain started falling Monday morning, Mitch Williams of Orange County, California, waited at the airport to fly home from his vacation.

"The hurricane can do a lot of damage if it hits at that strength," he said.

Williams said poorer residents who live in shacks are not well prepared. "It will wipe them out," he said. His advice for tourists was simple: "Get out."

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

The local hotel association estimated that 7,000 tourists were left in Los Cabos. Hotels had a 25 percent occupancy rate, according to the association.

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 (3-to-4-meter) 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.

But Cabos San Lucas fishing boat captain Eleazar Unzon, a 30-year veteran of these waters, was more cautious.

"This is causing a lot of fear and concern," said Unzon, 58, as he and helpers pulled the 33-foot (10-meter) fishing boat "Alejandra" onto a trailer. "We're getting the boat out of the water before it hits, so we can rest easy at home."

Unzon acknowledged that big storms do have some benefits — he notes that they bring in the "big fish" coveted by sports fishermen such as marlin — but said, "I'm not going to expose my livelihood."

Tim Donnelly, 57, a boat captain originally from Washington, D.C., sat dockside after tying down the 105-foot (32-meter), two-masted wooden schooner "Sunderland," saying he expected the 140-year-old wooden boat to ride out the storm.

"We've never been hit by a storm of this category," he said. "I'll be shocked if we don't have any problems."

Farther south, Jimena kicked up surf along Mexico's mainland western coast and generated strong winds that bent and uprooted trees in the resort town of Zihuatanejo. Authorities in other mainland towns were setting up shelters as a preventive measure.

On Monday evening, Jimena was a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph (250 kph) and was moving northwest near 10 mph (17 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It was centered about 285 miles (460 kilometers) south of Cabo San Lucas.

Hurricanes reach Category 5 at 156 mph (250 kph).

Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Kevin weakened to a tropical depression with top winds of 35 mph (55 kph). It was centered 845 miles (1,355 kilometers) west-southwest of the Baja peninsula's southern tip.

(This version CORRECTS metric conversion of hurricane's speed)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/...opical_weather

[samanthajane13]

Hurricane Jimena roars toward Mexican resort
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 10 mins ago

LOS CABOS, Mexico – Extremely dangerous Hurricane Jimena roared toward Mexico's resort-studded Baja California Peninsula on Monday, chasing away an international finance conference and prompting emergency workers to start evacuating thousands of people from shantytowns.

Jimena, with winds of near 155 mph (250 kph), is just short of Category 5 status — the top danger rating for a hurricane — and could rake the harsh desert region fringed with picturesque beaches and fishing villages by Tuesday evening, forecasters said. Heavy bands of intermittent rain moved across the resort town of Los Cabos Monday 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.

Many residents ignored the order, fearful 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."

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.

"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.

Workers at the Cabo San Lucas marina nailed sheets of plywood on storefront windows while fishermen secured their boats ahead of Jimena. Hotels and restaurants gathered up umbrellas, tables, chairs, and anything else that might be blown away.

As rain started falling Monday morning, Mitch Williams of Orange County, California, waited at the airport to fly home from his vacation.

"The hurricane can do a lot of damage if it hits at that strength," he said.

Williams said poorer residents who live in shacks are not well prepared. "It will wipe them out," he said. His advice for tourists was simple: "Get out."

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

The local hotel association estimated that 7,000 tourists were left in Los Cabos. Hotels had a 25 percent occupancy rate, according to the association.

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 (3-to-4-meter) 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.

But Cabos San Lucas fishing boat captain Eleazar Unzon, a 30-year veteran of these waters, was more cautious.

"This is causing a lot of fear and concern," said Unzon, 58, as he and helpers pulled the 33-foot (10-meter) fishing boat "Alejandra" onto a trailer. "We're getting the boat out of the water before it hits, so we can rest easy at home."

Unzon acknowledged that big storms do have some benefits — he notes that they bring in the "big fish" coveted by sports fishermen such as marlin — but said, "I'm not going to expose my livelihood."

Tim Donnelly, 57, a boat captain originally from Washington, D.C., sat dockside after tying down the 105-foot (32-meter), two-masted wooden schooner "Sunderland," saying he expected the 140-year-old wooden boat to ride out the storm.

"We've never been hit by a storm of this category," he said. "I'll be shocked if we don't have any problems."

On Monday evening, Jimena was a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph (250 kph) and was moving northwest near 9 mph (15 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It was centered about 245 miles (394 kilometers) south of Cabo San Lucas.

Hurricanes reach Category 5 at 156 mph (250 kph).

Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Kevin weakened to a tropical depression with top winds of 35 mph (55 kph). It was centered 840 miles (1350 kilometers) west-southwest of the Baja peninsula's southern tip.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/...opical_weather

[samanthajane13]

Mexico tries to evacuate thousands ahead of Jimena
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago

LOS CABOS, Mexico – 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 Category 5 status with winds of near 155 mph (250 kph), could rake the region of harsh desert fringed with picturesque beaches and fishing villages as a major hurricane 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 stream bed 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.

"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 (3-to-4-meter) 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.

Early Tuesday, Jimena was a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph (250 kph) and was moving north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It was centered about 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Cabo San Lucas.

Hurricane force winds extending as far as 45 miles (75 kilometers) and tropical storm force winds 140 miles (220 kilometers).

Hurricanes reach Category 5 at 156 mph (250 kph).

Farther out in the Pacific, Tropical Depression Kevin had top winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and was expected to weaken to a remnant low later in the day or Monday night. It was centered 830 miles (1,335 kilometers) west-southwest of the Baja peninsula's southern tip.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/...opical_weather

[samanthajane13]

Jimena weakens to Category 3 off Baja California

MIAMI – Hurricane Jimena has weakened to a Category 3 hurricane as it threatens vacation resorts on Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

A hurricane warning in effect for the southern part of the peninsula, which was already being pummeled by heavy winds, battering waves and bands of intense rain.

Maximum sustained winds had dropped to around 125 mph (205 kph), and the storm was moving north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph) Tuesday afternoon.

The center of the storm was forecast to be near or over the southern portion of the peninsula by late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika has formed in the open Atlantic, east of Antigua and Barbuda. The storm has top winds around 50 mph, and could grow stronger in the next couple of days.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/...opical_weather

[samanthajane13]

Hurricane Jimena swirls past southern Baja resorts
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 18 mins ago

LOS CABOS, Mexico – Los Cabos resorts mopped up after an overnight lashing from the once-mighty Hurricane Jimena, which weakened Wednesday as it doused the southern end of Mexico's sparsely populated Baja California Peninsula.

Winds had fallen from Tuesday's roaring 150 mph (240 kph) blasts to 100 mph (160 kph) by Wednesday morning and the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it was expected to weaken further as it runs up the Baja peninsula, home to about 3.5 million people, including more than 150,000 U.S. citizens, according to the State Department.

Despite a pummeling by the fringes of the then-Category 3 hurricane, the Mexican peninsula's biggest resort, the picturesque beach towns of Los Cabos, appeared to escape major damage beyond power outages, mud-choked roads and downed signs.

"A transformer blew out near our hotel ... like a bomb went off," said Robert Hudak, a sports fisherman from Rochester, New York, as he walked through the storm-soaked marina at Cabo San Lucas. "Three of them went off in our neighborhood; the whole neighborhood is out." His hotel handled the emergency the old-fashioned way: "They gave us a candle," Hudak said.

Like other tourists here, Hudak planned to make the best of it.

"We're down here to fish, hopefully we can," Hudak said. He noted that storms sometimes stir up the sea bottom and provide good fishing. The resort's marlin, sailfish and dorado are prized by fishermen.

Further up Baja's west coast, Juan Arce Marron said he was prepared for the hurricane to roll into his small campground in the Bahia Asuncion fishing village later in the day.

"We're starting to feel the wind this morning," he said, "but we're prepared for a bigger hit this afternoon."

Marron said windows were nailed shut, doors were locked and boats already up on land. More importantly, he said his family had stocked days of food and water, because dirt roads in the region, which is in the heart of the massive Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, tend to wash out in large storms.

Authorities reported no injuries in Los Cabos, but several thousand people spent the night in shelters.

Dozens of evacuees from the Los Cangrejos shantytown huddled in a darkened school after electricity failed during the storm Tuesday night. Trying to calm squalling babies and ignore hunger from food shortages, the evacuees waited for dawn, and a chance to look at what the hurricane did to their homes of plastic sheeting, wood and tar paper.

"Instead of giving out a few sheets of roofing every year, they should give us materials to build real houses — wood, or even bricks," said Paulino Hernandez, an out-of-work mason who sought haven at the school. "Every year it's the same thing: They (officials) give out a few sheets of roofing, and the next year it has to be replaced" when a hurricane comes.

Baja California Sur state Interior Secretary Luis Armanado Diaz said he was still worried about the storm's strike along the coast further north, but he said Jimena could alleviate the state's drought. "If it continues like this, and there is not a major impact, it will help more than it will hurt," he said.

The federal government declared a state of emergency for Los Cabos and the state capital of La Paz as the storm approached. Schools, many ports and most businesses closed. Rescue workers from the Red Cross and the Mexican military prepared for post-hurricane disaster relief, and two Mexican army Hercules cargo planes flew in medical supplies.

While its center missed the peninsula's resort-studded southern tip, its outer fringes kicked up huge waves and flooded streets.

Los Cabos resident Eduardo Meraz, 25, went swimming in the pounding surf at the height of the storm Tuesday.

"I'm not afraid. I respect the sea," said Meraz, still dripping from his dip. "The water is nice, but the waves really toss you around."

Not everyone enjoyed Jimena's raging show.

Martin Melchior, a 25-year-old construction worker, stood outside his plywood, tin-roofed shack in the Cactus shantytown and nervously watched the storm. Thin, tattered power cables snaked over the sodden ground to the hundreds of unregistered hookups to the city's power system.

Police trucks moved through the muddy streets, urging people to join an estimated 2,000 residents already in shelters, but Melchior said he wouldn't go.

"There are too many people in the shelters, and you can't get any peace. Someone tells you: 'This is my space,'" he said.

Forecasters predicted the hurricane would drop 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) of rain onto Baja arid deserts, and dry stream beds already were gushing torrents.

Most tourists had left by Tuesday, leaving 75 percent of hotel rooms vacant. Some of those who stayed came out to marvel at the storm, fighting the winds and rain at the shore.

Others wandered deserted streets, some ankle-deep in water.

"We're going to go get some more liquor and go back to the room and just watch it," Mark Lopez, 29, a truck dispatcher from San Jose, California, said while walking near a marina with a half-dozen friends. "We're making the most of it."

National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said Jimena is not going to bring much-needed rain to Southern California's wildfires, and will instead be heading back over the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika was moving across the Atlantic, about 100 miles (165 kilometers) east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands. The storm's top winds were decreasing to around 40 mph (65 kph), but tropical-storm force winds extended as far 105 miles (165 kilometers) from the center.

It was moving westward at about 10 mph (17 kph) and could hit the Leeward Islands in a day or so.

___

Associated Press writers Martha Mendoza and Julie Watson in Mexico City contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090902/...VycmljYW5lamlt

[samanthajane13]

Jimena down to tropical storm on Baja California
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – 13 mins ago

LOS CABOS, Mexico – Forecasters say Jimena has weakened to a tropical storm as it plowed over Baja California

The storm made landfall Wednesday afternoon between Puerto San Andresito and San Jaunico, a sparsely populated area of fishing villages on the Pacific coast of the peninsula.

By late Wednesday, winds had decreased to 70 mph (110 kph). They once roared at 150 mph (240 kph) as the storm was a Category 4 hurricane.

The government of Mexico has discontinued all hurricane warnings, changing them to tropical storm warnings.

The storm has torn off roofs, knocked down power poles and brought welcome rainfall to a drought-stricken state.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090903/...opical_weather