Hurricane brings welcome rain

LOS CABOS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Jimena plowed over Baja California on Wednesday, tearing off roofs, knocking down power poles and bringing welcome rainfall to a drought-stricken state.

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

Wind gusts and heavy rains blew down dozens of trees and lampposts in Loreto, the nearest significant resort town to the area where Jimena made landfall, according to Humberto Carmona, a city official manning an emergency- response center. About 500 people were in shelters in Loreto, which lies roughly on the other side of the narrow peninsula from where Jimena made landfall.

The picturesque beach resorts of Los Cabos, on the southernmost tip, were mostly spared overnight, when the roaring hurricane toppled signs, choked streets with mud and knocked out power, but did little serious damage. No injuries were reported.

Winds fell from Tuesday’s roaring 150 mph Category 4 blasts to 80 mph, making Jimena a Category 1 storm. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was expected to weaken further as it runs north up the Baja peninsula, which is home to about 3.5 million people, including more than 150,000 U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. State Department. Jimena was located about 40 miles south of Santa Rosalita, and moving north near 12 mph.

Winds damaged some homes in the small farming city of Ciudad Constitucion, Baja California Sur Gov. Narciso Agundez told the Cabo Mil radio station.

In Los Cabos, Ariel Rivero, 49, a fishing-boat captain who grew up in Long Beach, Calif., and moved here 30 years ago, surveyed the marina where his boat, the Great Escape, was undamaged.

“We really lucked out,” Rivero said.

Workers took down sheets of plywood from a shuttered Starbucks and other stores as they prepared to reopen, and workers swept up tree branches, sand and trash deposited in the streets by minor flooding.

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

But Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said Jimena would not bring much-needed rain to quench Southern California’s wildfires and will instead head back over the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika was losing strength as it moved west of Antigua and Guadeloupe with top winds of about 40 mph.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and islands of the Netherlands Antilles and French Caribbean territories, meaning tropical storm-force winds could hit over the next 24 hours.