Hurricane Newton Smashes Into Mexico’s Luxury Resort Area of Los Cabos

The Category-2 storm was generating hurricane-force winds 40 miles from its center as it rolled over the Baja California Peninsula just before 2 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET), according to the National Hurricane Center.

Hurricane warnings were in effect across the resorts of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, twin luxury destinations in the municipality of Los Cabos. Tropical-storm warnings were in place further north up the coast.

Heavy rainfall of up to 10 inches through Wednesday could trigger “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” the Weather Channel reported.

California-based storm-chaser Josh Morgerman was in Cabo San Lucas when the storm hit.

A third of all flights arriving and departing at Los Cabos airport on Tuesday had been canceled by 3 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET), according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Residents prepared for the oncoming storm Monday by nailing plywood over windows and opening 18 shelters across the two resorts, as well as 38 others across other parts of Baja California Sur state, The Associated Press reported.

“There is no need for mass buying,” Los Cabos Mayor Arturo de la Rosa Escalante said, according to the AP. “There is enough food and fuel for the next 20 days.”

The storm is expected to make a second landfall Wednesday over Mexico’s mainland before hitting the U.S. on Wednesday night as a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said.

According to the Weather Channel, parts of Arizona and New Mexico could be in line for up to five inches of rain between Wednesday and Thursday, the Weather Channel reported.

It’s not the first time Los Cabos has been walloped. Hurricane Odile ravaged the tourist hotspot in Sept. 2014, the most powerful storm to ever hit the Baja California Peninsula.