LA PAZ, (27 Aug 2003) -- Former Hurricane Ignacio hit land at barely tropical storm force, cutting off the state capital and the tourist resort of Los Cabos with mudslides and washed out roads, and leaving behind a trail of distraught, stranded travelers. As airports reopened and residents began to return to their homes after spending two nights in shelters, Americans and other travelers began trying desperately to get home. ''My husband is running out of his diabetes and blood pressure medications and my kid starts college next week. We have to get back,'' said Judy Masuda, 46, a California state government employee from Sacramento whose flight to Los Angeles Monday was canceled when the airport closed. Masuda said she waited more than five hours at the La Paz airport for the only possible ticket to Tijuana. ''We'll have to rent a car and drive across the border,'' said Masuda, who said she believed quick cash payments had gotten some people out on earlier flights. ''Maybe I should have offered somebody a bribe.'' Nor was land travel much of an option. ''The highways out of La Paz are closed, and some are cut off in several places by creeks or mudslides,'' said Baja California Sur state civil defense employee Rembrand Diaz. The storm moved inland, dousing Loreto another fishing and beach resort 140 miles to the north of La Paz that is popular with U.S. retirees with heavy rain. ''We have evacuated about 150 people to shelters. The rain was very intense, but we've taken all the precautions,'' Loreto town councilman Luis Fernando Peralta said by telephone. ''There is water covering some streets, but that will go down once the rain stops.'' | | The storm's center was located about 35 miles west of Loreto, at the center of the Baja California Peninsula, and was moving slowly northwest at 5 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported. The hurricane's winds, once over 90 mph, ripped boats from their moorings in La Paz Monday and threw at least three sailboats against the rocks. But by Tuesday, Ignacio's winds had declined to about 35 mph and the storm was weakening as it moved inland. But forecasters downgraded Ignacio to a tropical storm and later to a tropical depression, saying the system would continue to weaken and could dissipate before the weekend. Additional flooding was still possible, but some locals seemed glad to see some rain in this desert peninsula. ''This storm brought more good things than bad,'' said local naval commander Rear Admiral Joaquin Garciasilva, noting that the rains had helped partially fill the local reservoir. They seemed less worried than tourists who found themselves stuck - sometimes for days - in the soaked port. ''I've been stuck here for two days,'' said Ted Huffman of Los Angeles, who had come to scuba dive. ''They gave me a ticket for tomorrow, but that's only because I went in and got a little aggressive,'' Huffman said as he left an airline ticket office. ''Since they're the only people with direct flights, I guess they can pretty much do what they want'' with passengers, he said. |
