Hurricane Kay was heading toward a possible landfall Thursday in a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, and forecasters say it might bring rain to Southern California by the weekend.
Authorities in Baja California set up shelters and closed schools in anticipation of Kay, whose maximum sustained winds were 80 mph (130 km/h) Thursday followingnoon.
Forecasters said it might bring hurricane-force winds to parts of the peninsula and brush central Baja California in the next few hours near the town of Punta Abreojos, near the El Vizcaino gray whale sanctuary.
The US National Hurricane Center said the major storm’s outer bands would bring heavy rain — and possible flash flooding — to parts of southern California and southwestern Arizona between Friday night and Saturday.
Kay’s vortex was located regarding 175 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of Punta Eugenia Thursday followingnoon and was moving north-northwest at 24 km/h (15 mph).
A hurricane watch was issued for a stretch of the peninsula around Bahía Asunción and Punta Abreojos, and the Baja California Sur government said more than 1,600 people were already in shelters. He added that the water level of some streams increased and closed some roads.
Los Cabos, on the southern tip of the peninsula, saw heavy downpours on Thursday. Mayor Óscar Leggs Castro said a day earlier that there were more than 800 people in the shelters set up in the tourist center.
Non-essential businesses closed and some airlines canceled flights.
Some landslides were reported that forced the closure of roads on the peninsula, but no reports of injuries were filed.
The mayor of the town of Mulegé, on the Gulf of California, said Thursday morning that her city has been without running water since Wednesday, and asked state authorities to send tankers.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Earl was offshore in the Atlantic Ocean and is forecast to pass just southeast of Bermuda on Thursday night as a Category 3 storm.
The island’s national security minister, Michael Weeks, told reporters that public services and government offices would continue to operate, but he warned people to prepare for tropical storm conditions.
“Bermuda will definitely feel the effects of Earl, so we need to avoid overconfidence,” he said.
Weeks also warned of flooding in low-lying areas and said authorities had opened a shelter.
“I don’t need to remind you that by their nature storms are unpredictable, so we need to make sure we are ready and prepared,” he said.
Earl was 180 miles (290 kilometers) south of Bermuda Thursday followingnoon with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) and moving northeast at 13 mph (20 km/h).
Further east, Danielle became a post-tropical storm in the Atlantic regarding 1,145 kilometers (715 miles) north-northwest of the Azores. Its maximum sustained winds were 100 km/h (65 mph).