Hurricane Norbert strengthens to Category 3 storm

[October 11, 2008]  PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico (AP) -- As Norbert bore down on Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula, it gathered strength overnight and was classified as a Category 3 hurricane early Saturday.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Norbert became better organized overnight and its winds grew to 115 mph. As of 5 a.m. EDT, the hurricane's center was located about 90 miles south of Cabo San Lazaro and about 145 miles west-southwest of La Paz.

It was moving to the north-northeast near 15 mph.

Norbert is expected to sweep across Baja on Saturday, cross the Gulf of California and then head toward the Mexican mainland.

The center said Norbert could even strengthen a little more before making landfall along the southwestern coast of Baja California later Saturday morning.

Norbert also is expected to retain hurricane strength on its second landfall Saturday evening along the northwestern coast of mainland Mexico, the center said.

Fishermen pulled in their boats and hotels warned tourists away from beaches Friday as the hurricane bore down on the peninsula.

Paula Lucero Aviles set out with six children and four other adults in a small fishing boat Friday when they got a cell phone call warning them to return to the port of San Carlos, where the skies had already turned dark with the hurricane's approach.

"We turned back because they warned us bad weather was coming," Aviles said. "We would have been risking our lives. It is coming on strong."

A hurricane warning was issued for the west coast of Baja California from Puerto San Andresito to Agua Blanca. The government issued hurricane warnings along the coast of the northwestern border state of Sonora and on the east coast of the Baja peninsula from near La Paz north to Loreto.

The storm's remnants were expected to dump more rain on water-logged West Texas, where authorities were preparing for more flooding.

State and local officials plan to activate an emergency operations center Monday in Presidio, where an earthen levee is struggling to hold back the swollen Rio Grande.

The Governor of Baja California Sur state, Narciso Agundez, said officials here are "very worried."

"It is certain that it will hit land tomorrow in Baja California Sur," one of two states that make up the peninsula, Agundez said.

Under overcast skies, fishermen hauled their boats onto beaches in La Paz, a port town on the peninsula's eastern coast. Yellow flags on beaches warned people to stay out of the water.

Eli and Claudia Tubia, on vacation from Texarkana, Texas, took a cruise Wednesday night despite the coming storm, but their hotel in resort-dotted Cabo San Lucas was already storing outdoor furniture and paintings.

"They kind of cleared out the beach, and the restaurants that they have on the beach, they took all the furnishings away," Eli Tubia said.

Meanwhile in southern Mexico, Tropical Storm Odile was approaching the resort of Acapulco, but was expected to remain offshore.

The government extended a tropical storm warning from Lagunas de Chacahua westward past Acapulco and Zihuatanejo to Punta San Telmo, as Odile moved parallel to the Pacific coast with winds of about 65 mph.

Odile was located about 50 miles west-southwest of Acapulco, and was moving northwest at about 14 mph. Odile could become a hurricane, and a small deviation in its path could bring the storm inland, the hurricane center said.

Forecasters said Odile would sweep close to land on Saturday and could dump as much as 8 inches of rain, threatening dangerous mudslides.

Odile has already caused flooding in Acapulco and forced officials to cancel classes at local schools.

Civil defense officials in the southern state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, urged about 10,000 people living along river banks or other dangerous areas to evacuate.

But Adrian Jaimes Celso, who lives in a vulnerable mountainside settlement in Acapulco, said residents "don't know where any shelters are if we have to evacuate, or what provisions have been made."

[Associated Press; By KIRSTEN JOHNSON]

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