Tropical Storm Hits Mexico, US Tourist Missing
Date: 26-Oct-06
Country: MEXICO
Author: Frank Jack Daniel
The military, police and civil protection workers began evacuating some 1,500 people from poorly built houses as the storm took aim at the Los Cabos resort, popular with foreign visitors for its golf courses, yachting and sports fishing.
A large wave swept away a US tourist from Washington state who was walking on the beach at Los Cabos.
"He is considered missing. It would be very difficult for him to be found alive," said firefighter Gabriel Garcia.
Paul faded to a tropical storm from a hurricane, with winds near 45 mph (75 kph).
The storm was about 130 miles (210 km) southwest of Los Cabos and was expected on Wednesday to sweep close by the resort, made up of the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, before moving across the Sea of Cortez and hitting the mainland state of Sinaloa.
Authorities shut the Cabos San Lucas port, frustrating sports fishermen who converged on the resort this week for a major competition involving up to 200 boats.
"I hope we can fish tomorrow but we probably won't be able to. They don't want anybody getting thrown off their boats," said Dan Helzer, a retiree from California who was part of a fishing team on a boat called Black Gold.
The resort escaped serious damage from two hurricanes earlier this year that veered away at the last moment.
'IT'S SCARY'
Mexican residents of the Tierra y Libertad (Land and Freedom) shantytown district followed the news, concerned the dried-up creek bed where they live could be drenched by flash floods as often before in storms.
"It's scary," said resident Maria Mariano Reyes, who lives in a flimsy shack without plumbing. "Water comes in from both sides of the house and we're stuck in the middle," she said.
Police drove round endangered areas asking people by loudspeakers to leave their homes and go to shelters.
Rain forced tourists to cancel scuba diving trips and golf.
Bob Bisbee, who founded the annual fishing tournament 26 years ago, stood in a tackle shop surrounded by radios and fishing lines on reels. He checked the Web page of the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center.
"I'm not worried yet," he said of the storm. "It's trying to make up its mind what it's going to do.
"If the port is closed tomorrow, we'll fish on Thursday. If it's closed on Thursday, we'll fish on Friday. If we don't fish on Friday and we have to cancel, we'll have a nice big banquet and we'll do it next year."
Competitors pay more than $60,000 to enter all the categories in Bisbee's competition and last year's top prizewinner walked away with more than $1 million.
Sinaloa state, an important agricultural area, took a hit from Hurricane Lane last month and was in Paul's sights again.
Lane, which killed three people, seriously damaged tomato crops in the state, helping push inflation in Mexico to its highest monthly rate in six years.
(Additional reporting by Gunther Hamm in Mexico City)
