CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Hurricane Blanca was downgraded to a tropical storm Sunday as it neared Baja California, where residents boarded home and storefront windows in preparation for the heavy rain and swift wind that were forecast to lash a wide area, including the resorts of Los Cabos.
After building into a powerful Category 4 hurricane Saturday, Blanca quickly lost strength the following day. It was expected to pass to the west of the peninsula’s southern tip, moving near or along its southwestern coastline at night and today.
With memories still fresh from Hurricane Odile, which battered ramshackle homes, stores and luxury hotels when it made a direct hit on Los Cabos as a Category 3 storm in September, authorities put thousands of troops on alert and issued maritime warnings.
Locals nailed down roofs and dragged food stands in from the beach in Cabo San Lucas, even as some tourists strolled the sand taking pictures of the cloudy skies and rising surf. Gusty wind whipped the tops of palm trees.
James Kicklighter, a Los Angeles film writer and director vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, said the wind rattled windows and doors at his hotel, which took safety precautions including closing the beach and pools, taking down light fixtures and artwork, and suspending alcohol and restaurant service. Kicklighter said hotel workers advised him to close the curtains in his room and move the dresser to brace the glass doors to the patio.
“I’m not feeling very nervous at this point with the constant downgrades, but I have a healthy respect for hurricanes growing up with family in Florida,” he said via email. “People here are excited to ride it out, taking a lot of selfies.”
Mexico’s National Water Commission warned of strong wind, thunderstorms and “extraordinary rainfall,” with possible accumulations of 10 inches or more in Baja California Sur state.
Los Cabos Civil Protection director Wenceslao Pettit said conditions were calm, and the area had begun to experience light rain associated with Blanca. He added that no evacuations were being carried out, although nine emergency shelters had been readied, and the port was closed to small watercraft.
Blanca’s maximum sustained winds dipped Sunday to near 70 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Its center was about 130 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas and moving north-northwest at 9 mph.
