Hurricane Odile slams Baja California peninsula

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico - Hurricane Odile hammered Mexico's Baja California Peninsula overnight, tearing away the facades of luxury resorts, shattering countless car and hotel windows and leaving lobbies swamped and full of debris on Monday.

The storm, which made landfall near Cabo San Lucas the previous night as a powerful Category 3 hurricane, toppled trees, power poles and road signs along the main highway, which at one point was swamped by rushing floodwaters. Room windows at the Westin were blown out, mud and rock blocked the entrance to the Club Regina and workers said the Hilton was seriously damaged.

"It's the entire corridor" between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, said Deneb Poli, a medical worker at the Melia Cabo Real. She said all the hotel's guests and employees were fine, but electricity and phone lines were cut and cell coverage was spotty. "There are parts of hotels that are completely collapsed. ... The damage is pretty extensive."

Poli said the plan for now was to stay put. By morning the rains had stopped and winds had died down, and residents and tourists emerged from shelters to assess the damage.

The newspaper Tribuna de los Cabos reported people being injured by flying glass, power lines and traffic signals down throughout the city and a fire at the Cascadas resort on Medano Beach. No details about the blaze were immediately available.

Odile continued to rake the state of Baja California Sur as it marched northward with strong winds and heavy rains.

As of 8 a.m. PT Monday, the storm's maximum sustained winds were near 100 mph as it moved over the peninsula as a Category 2 hurricane. It was centered about 65 miles west of Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico, and moving to the northwest at 14 mph.

A hurricane warning was in effect from Punta Abreojos to Santa Rosalia.

Odile was forecast to slow down and lose intensity over the next day or so, the hurricane center said, but heavy rainfall and flooding remain a serious threat.

The U.S. hurricane center warned of possible coastal flooding and rainfall of 5 to 10 inches, with isolated amounts up to 15 inches.

Besides the gleaming megaresorts, Baja California is home to tiny fishing communities and low-lying neighborhoods of flimsy homes. Forecasters warned of a dangerous storm surge with large waves as well as drenching rains capable of causing landslides and flash floods.

Across the region, people hunkered inside overnight to ride out the storm's wrath. In one hotel near San Jose del Cabo, guests moved from a makeshift shelter into crowded basement storage areas after the boarded up windows failed.

Denise Mellor, a traveler from Orange County, California, was frustrated about a lack of information about the storm and said she was learning more from her daughter back home than from hotel workers.

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

Mexican authorities evacuated coastal areas and readied shelters for up to 30,000 people.

"We are going to be hit, do not risk your life," warned Marcos Covarrubias, governor of Baja California Sur.

At least 22 airline flights were canceled. Some tourists camped out at the Los Cabos international airport hoping to get out before the storm, but the facility shut down all air operations late in the afternoon.

Luis Felipe Puente, national coordinator for Mexico's civil protection agency, said 164 shelters had been prepared for as many as 30,000 people in Baja California Sur.

Meanwhile in the central Atlantic, Hurricane Edouard strengthened to a Category 2 storm Monday with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph, although it was forecast to remain far out at sea and pose no threat to land.

As of 11 a.m. ET Monday the U.S. hurricane center said Edouard's center was 655 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and was moving northwest at 14 mph.