Tropical Storm Rick threatens to trigger dangerous flash floods and mud slides when it makes landfall in western Mexico after sparing Baja California’s glitzy resorts a direct blow.
In Sinaloa, where Rick was expected to make landfall yesterday, authorities suspended classes for two days in cities along the state’s southern coast.
Governor Jesus Aguilar asked residents in a radio message to pay close attention to civil protection advisories and said soldiers were ready to help with possible evacuations.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami put Rick on a projected path south of the tip of the Baja California Peninsula overnight, on course to hit the mainland near Mazatlan yesterday.
Forecasters said Rick could dump between 75mm and 150mm of rain in some areas in the states of Baja California, Sinaloa and Durango and warned of possible flash floods and mud slides.
Over the weekend, Rick’s winds were clocked at 290kph — making it the strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific region since 1997 — and it kicked up high waves hundreds of kilometers away that killed at least two people. But the storm spent its force far out at sea and weakened over cooler waters.
Rick’s maximum sustained winds were down to 105kph on Tuesday night, the Hurricane Center said. It was centered about 217km south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas and moving to the north-northeast at 19kph.
Los Cabos Mayor Oscar Rene Nunez said officials would close schools there and urged residents living in makeshift homes and those in flood zones to seek shelter.
Caravans of police cars, military vehicles and buses fanned out to “high-risk neighborhoods” in low-lying areas across Los Cabos to evacuate residents.
Carlos Guevara, the Cabo San Lucas civil defense coordinator, said people became complacent as the afternoon rains dissipated and the sky began to clear.
“We have this storm in front of us. It has not passed,” he cautioned in a meeting of government officials.
Alejandro Flores, a 28-year-old waiter, said on Tuesday night that he spent the last few days piling dirt around the side of his house to guard it from floodwaters. He and his wife were preparing to leave their neighborhood, where the pitted dirt roads are commonly inundated during hurricane season.
“I am very afraid of the flooding,” Flores said.
Meanwhile, far out in the Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Neki was centered about 1,005km southwest of Honolulu and about 435km east-southeast of Johnston Island. Maximum winds were at about 129kph.
Forecasters predicted Neki would brush by tiny Johnston Island yesterday.
The uninhabited island, which is part of the isolated Johnston Atoll, is under the primary jurisdiction and control of the US Air Force. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has a national wildlife refuge there.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS