LOS CABOS, Mexico, (Reuters) – Hurricane Jimena grew into a highly dangerous storm as it sped toward Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Monday, scaring tourists, prompting residents to sandbag homes and disrupting a top-level finance conference.
Jimena’s winds strengthened to nearly 155 mph (249 kph), reaching near the threshold of a deadly Category 5 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Category 5 hurricanes are the top of the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale and can be devastating if they hit land.
“I’m scared. I’m taking the kids back to the hotel right now — I hope we’ll be safe there,” Gigi Hernandez, a tourist from California, said at a marina in Los Cabos, a lively resort area at the tip of the peninsula.
Much of Baja California is sparsely populated desert and mountains that are popular with nature lovers, surfers, sportfishermen and retirees. Los Cabos, which is more built up, attracts tourists to its golf courses, resorts and beaches.
Mexico, a major oil producer, has no oil installations in the Pacific. But some of its ports in the area have started closing due to Jimena, which formed and built up quickly last weekend.
The Hurricane Center forecast it would hit the area today and move inland tomorrow.
Los Cabos was overcast and drizzly yesterday.
The port of Cabo San Lucas was shut and a line of trailers formed as yachts, water taxis and glass-bottomed tourist boats were removed from the water for safety reasons.
