Winds, Heavy Rain Tear Into Baja California

LA PAZ, Mexico — Hurricane Fausto battered usually sunny Baja California on Friday, downing power poles, smashing windows and throwing the tourist business at Cabo San Lucas and La Paz for a loop.

Waves up to 15 feet walloped Pacific beaches along the southern tip of Baja. Fausto’s 85-mph winds and heavy rains forced ports to close and car rental agencies to shut rather than let their vehicles out into the storm.

Tourists were left to wonder why they even came.

“All this for $200 a night,” sighed one American visitor, Stanley Cohen. “I took a chance on the hurricane season and lost.”

Beach hotels all along the coast ordered guests out of their rooms to avoid being hit by broken glass. Hotel workers herded the guests into basements or interior meeting halls far away from fragile windows.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, although telephone systems broke down in much of the area as the hurricane came ashore Friday afternoon at Todos Santos. Winds that had reached 105 mph in the morning fell to 95 mph as Fausto neared land, and 85 mph upon landfall.

The government posted a hurricane warning for mainland residents from Guaymas south to Eldorado and for all of Baja southward from San Lazaro on the Pacific side and from Loreto on the Gulf of California.

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The storm is expected to cross over Baja, regain some strength over the Gulf of California, then come ashore in mainland Mexico sometime today.

Forecasters say tropical moisture from the storm will surge northeastward into western Texas and southern New Mexico this weekend.

As the storm neared land Friday, horizontal sheets of rain drenched the normally arid area.

Forecasters warned that up to 12 inches of rain was possible, raising the threat of flash floods and mudslides.