HURRICANE JIMENA 2009

HURRICANE JIMENA 2009

Hurricane Jimena pounded the middle of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula on Wednesday after lashing the Los Cabos resort region with driving rains and thundering surf.

Winds from the once-mighty storm had weakened to near 105 mph (165 kph) by early Wednesday and the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it was expected to weaken further as it runs up the peninsula. Hurricane Jimena -force winds were already hitting land.

Despite a pummeling by the fringes of the then-Category 3 hurricane, the Mexican peninsula's biggest resort, Los Cabos, appeared escape major damage beyond power outages, mud-choked roads and downed signs.

Dozens of people evacuated from the Los Cangrejos shantytown huddled in a darkened school after electricity failed during the storm. Trying to calm squalling babies and ignore hunger from food shortages, the evacuees waited for dawn, and a chance to look at what the hurricane did to their homes of plastic sheeting, wood and tar paper.

"Instead of giving out a few sheets of roofing every year, they should give us materials to build real houses -- wood, or even bricks," said Paulino Hernandez, an out-of-work mason who sought haven at the school. "Every year it's the same thing: They (officials) give out a few sheets of roofing, and the next year it has to be replaced" when a hurricane comes.

Authorities reported no injuries in Los Cabos, but expressed concern about what might happen when the Hurricane Jimena hits land farther up the coast.

"It could be ugly at Bahia Magdalena," state Interior Secretary Luis Armanado Diaz said, referring to a sparsely populated bay with a smattering of fishing villages to the north.
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