Weakening Tropical Storm Lidia marched up Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, has left tourists stranded and at least five dead with the number expected to rise as of Saturday.
Streets were flooded as were and residential properties in resort cities after Lidia passed over a sparsely populated area of the peninsula that is home to a large nature reserve and back out over Pacific waters.
Authorities have said the death toll could rise over the weekend as emergency crews surveyed the damage in villages with ramshackle homes.
Evacuees rest at a temporary shelter, following heavy rains in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico Friday
View of one of the main avenues under water in Baja California, Mexico on Friday
A truck sits among debris in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lidia
One person was considered missing and video broadcast on local networks showed vehicles being swept away by flooded rivers.
The dead included two people electrocuted by power lines, a woman drowned after being swept away by water on a flooded street and a baby was ripped from its mother’s arms as she crossed a flooded area.
Mendoza said late Friday that there was a fifth victim but did not give details.
Lidia was forecast to lose more strength over the course of the day.
Baja California Sur Gov. Carlos Mendoza reported that Lidia had dumped about 27 inches of rain, ‘the largest amount of water we have had since 1933.’
Lidia’s maximum sustained winds dropped to 40mph, just above the minimum threshold for a tropical storm, as its center passed over a sparsely populated area of the peninsula that is home to a large nature reserve and back out over Pacific waters. It was forecast to lose more strength over the course of the day.
Civil protection personnel work around the seven meters deep and ten in diameter hole caused after heavy rains unleashed during the passage of Tropical Storm Lidia
People stand next to swaying palm trees during the storm
State Tourism Secretary Luis Genero Ruiz said about 20,000 foreign tourists were stranded after airlines suspended flights to the area.
About 1,400 people had sought refuge at storm shelters as the storm flooded streets and stranded tourists.
The US National Hurricane Center said Lidia made landfall early Friday west of La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur state.
At least five people were killed during the storm, that is expected to continue into Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada in the form of scattered showers and thunderstorms
The storm was centered about 40 miles northeast of Punta Eugenia on Saturday afternoon and was heading northwest at about 12mph.
Earlier Lidia spread rains over a broad swath of Mexico including the capital, where it was blamed for flooding that briefly closed the city’s airport this week.
The hurricane center forecast that some of the storm’s tropical moisture would affect the US desert Southwest over the Labor Day weekend, including parts of western Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada, in the form of scattered showers and thunderstorms.
Far out over the Atlantic, meanwhile, Hurricane Irma was following a course that could bring it near the eastern Caribbean Sea next week. It had maximum sustained winds near 110mph and was moving west at 15mph.
There was no immediate threat to land, and no coastal watches or warnings were in effect.