Hurricane Odile’s destructive force. Photo: Nikki Warner/Instagram
Sunday night was a bad one for Baja. At around 11 p.m. local time, Odile made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. It slammed into the peninsula with full force, battering Cabo San Lucas first, then making its way north throughout the night and well into Monday. Winds of up to 100 mph were reported, ripping down trees and power poles, blowing in doors, and damaging nearly everything it came into contact with.
Thankfully, despite the hurricane’s ferocity, there are no deaths or serious injuries reported, although 135 people have been treated for minor ones – everything from falling objects to cuts from glass.
Up until Odile, that last hurricane that carried the same strength in the vicinity was Hurricane Olivia, way back in 1967. “With maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, Odile tied with Olivia in 1967 for the strongest hurricane to make landfall anywhere in Baja California Sur since modern records began in the satellite era,” said Nick Wiltgen, a meteorologist from Weather.com. “This storm is putting the tourist infrastructure of Cabo San Lucas and the Los Cabos region through the harshest conditions it’s ever experienced.”
According to the national coordinator for Civil Protection, nearly 230,000 people in Baja are without power, and many didn’t have drinkable water.
Weather.com reported that an OfficeMax collapsed and a convenience store was ripped apart, but the devastation from the storm isn’t all natural: reports of looters ransacking everything from pharmacies to convenience stores are circulating, and the Mexican government has issued a declaration of extraordinary emergency for La Paz, Los Cabos, Comondú, Loreto and Morengé. Authorities opened shelters for 30,000 people after residents were evacuated before the storm hit.
Los Cabos International Airport remains closed until September 22nd after sustaining major damage, as does General Manuel Marquez De Leon International.
