Mexico City, Sep 2 (EFE) Officials in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur have started evacuating residents of Pacific coastal communities as Hurricane Jimena approaches the area.
Hurricane Jimena is a category four storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale.
“Already in Los Cabos, particularly in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, we have a significant number of families in the temporary shelters. In the city of La Paz, we are still waiting to get the order to begin the evacuations,” Baja California Sur Government secretary Luis Armando Diaz said Tuesday.
The focus of the evacuation operation has been on the tourist area of Los Cabos, where “the areas of risk and high risk” have been evacuated in the past few hours, the official told MVS radio.
A total of 159 shelters with the “capacity to hold 29,000 people” have been opened across Baja California, Diaz said.
“The army is already working at the majority of the shelters, along with municipal, state and, of course, federal authorities,” Diaz said.
The storm’s centre was around 225 km south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas at 1500 GMT Tuesday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Jimena is moving to the north-northwest at 19 kmph and its effects will likely be felt in Los Cabos by Tuesday evening, the NHC said.
The hurricane has maximum sustained winds of 230 kmph.
Baja California Sur has been on a high-level state of alert since Monday ahead of the possible arrival of Jimena, which would be the most powerful storm to hit the area in years.
Alerts have also been declared in other Pacific states, including Sinaloa, Nayarit, Colima and Jalisco, due to heavy rains, strong winds and bad surf conditions.
