Tropical Storm Odile targets US-Mexico border states

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Tropical Storm Odile headed for a new landfall in northwestern Mexico on Wednesday, September 17, after leaving a trail of destruction in beach resorts, requiring tourists to be airlifted to safety.

Odile was creeping slowly across the narrow Gulf of California packing 65 kilometer (40 mile) per hour winds as it headed for the state of Sonora, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

The storm is expected to weaken over land but will produce heavy rains likely to trigger life-threatening flash floods, including in the US border states of New Mexico and Arizona.

Odile wrecked hotels and flattened homes when it crashed into the Baja California peninsula as a massive hurricane on Sunday and Monday, marooning 30,000 tourists in the popular Beach resorts of Los Cabos.

Military and commercial airlines ferried hundreds of tourists out of the heavily damaged Los Cabos airport on Tuesday and were due to airlift more on Wednesday.

Although Odile made landfall as a dangerous category three hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, no deaths were reported.

And while Odile continued to whip northwestern Mexico, a new tropical storm, dubbed Polo, swirled off the southwestern coast and was expected to become a hurricane late Wednesday or early Thursday, the US forecasters said. – Rappler.com