Hurricane Henriette Hits Cabo San Lucas & Heads to Mainland

Hurricane Henriette, although only a category 1 hurricane, has already left 7 dead and thousands homeless after it made landfall along Los Cabos at the Southern tip of Baja, Mexico. The primarily desert regions of Baja are not as prepared to withstand hurricane forces as well as the tropical regions of the Caribbean. Caribbean hurricanes are a normal though potentially devastating part of each fall, and the flora and fauna recover quickly from such poundings. In Baja, the sandy soils saturate with water rapidly and begin to slide. Lacking dense vegetation, flash floods and mudslides can be catastrophic.

I was fortunate enough to have passed through several Baja hurricanes relatively unscathed, but can attest to the power of even the smallest of these storms. In the summer of 92’, our entire caravan of scientists from the University of Arizona had to evacuate our camp in Cabo Pulmo with a Hurricane arrival. The drive to Cabo San Lucas, though a little scary was amazing with the wind lashing our trucks and shredding our tents. Luckily there were relatively few injuries, all of which resulted in our fine plan to go body surfing in the storm surge.

Henriette, is expected to reach the mainland later today between Topolobampo and Bahia Kino. Although the hurricane was disrupted as it crossed land from the Pacific to the Sea of Cortez, the Pacific system still produced winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour. The hurricane is now heading north at 12 mph and is about 70 miles from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Henriette may bring storm-surge flooding to Mexico as high as 5 feet (1.5 meters) above normal levels, “dangerous battering waves,'' and 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in mountainous areas, with the potential to cause “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides''. In response, Mexico has issued a hurricane warning from Topolobampo north to Bahia Kino and a tropical storm warning along the east coast of the Baja Peninsula from La Paz north to Loreto.