Hurricane Odile forces holidaymakers to take refuge after hitting Mexico

Holidaymakers have been sheltering in hotels and many coastal resorts have been evacuated as Hurricane Odile battered Mexico’s popular tourist region of Baja California on Monday. The storm has reached the resort area of Los Cabos in the western state, with 125mph winds uprooting trees. Flights were cancelled and shelters for up to 30,000 people were prepared amid warnings of large waves and torrential rain that could lead to landslides and flash floods. Experts said it was set to be the strongest hurricane in the region since Kiko in August 1989, which was also a category three by the time it hit the peninsula’s eastern coast.

It’s a little bit (unsettling) that we don’t have a choice but to sit in here and hope for the best. So that makes me a little bit scared.

Denise Mellor, tourist from Orange County, California, who is staying in San Jose del Cabo

Electricity has also been turned off to avoid damage from power lines if the winds bring them down. Odile had been rated a category four hurricane but it lost strength on Sunday afternoon just before it hit the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said. The eye of the storm is expected to move northwest by the middle of this week and US Marines are on standby.

Later on we’re going to be cut off and my house of wood and laminated cardboard won’t stand up to much.

Los Cabos resident Felipa Flores

World Hurricane Odile