Powerful hurricane Odile slams Mexico’s Baja California resorts

Hurricane Odile whipped through the popular beach resorts of Mexico's Baja California peninsula early on Monday, uprooting trees, dumping heavy rain and forcing thousands of tourists to take cover in emergency shelters.

Winds of up to 110 miles per hour buffeted shelters as one of the worst storms on record hit the luxury retreats of Los Cabos, battering Mexico's northwest coast.

The US National Hurricane Center said Odile had eased to a category 2 hurricane, but would likely cause life-threatening flooding and mud slides in the next few days.

The weather service said Odile was expected to slow as it pushed north-northwest along the desert peninsula and forecast the storm would steadily weaken over the next two days.

Winds eased slightly as the storm moved over land. But because it struck in the middle of the night, details were scarce on the extent of any damage early Monday.

Tourists in shelters or hiding in the bathtubs of their rooms posted photos on social media showing windows, barricaded with furniture, after they were blown out by the strong winds.

"This is really bad. My ears are about to explode by the pressure and I have an inch of water in my kitchen/living room," said Sarah McKinney on her Twitter account.

Another woman posted a video online showing workmen erecting sheets of chipboard and boarded-up windows shaking. Dozens of people sat huddled with pillows in the middle of a large room.

"I'm sweating like hell. Scary sound of howling wind," Alba Mora Roca said on her Twitter feed. "The windows of the shelter broke. More than 200 people moved to the basement but there's no space. Many are sitting on the stairs."

Reuters was not immediately able to contact either woman.

Evacuations

At least 26,000 foreign tourists and 4,000 Mexicans were in the region, Mexican officials said. Emergency workers and military personal evacuated thousands of people from areas at risk of flooding.

Some experts said it was the strongest hurricane to hit the tip of the peninsula since the advent of satellite data.

"We haven't seen one get so close and with the possibility of impact, and of such a nature," said Wenceslao Petit, head of emergency services in Los Cabos. "There aren't words for this."

Ahead of the storm's approach, people in Cabo San Lucas had rushed to board up windows, clear beach furniture and remove fishing boats and yachts from the water into dry docks.

While other beaches in Mexico were packed with tourists during the long weekend leading to Tuesday's Independence Day holiday, the resorts of Los Cabos are mostly visited by Americans and are in low season.

Luis Puente, the head of Mexico's civil protection agency, said that 164 shelters had been readied with a capacity for 30,000 people. There are no major oil installations in the area.

(Reporting by Michael O'Boyle, Tomas Sarmiento, Simon Gardner and Dave Graham; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)