Mexico City - Hurricane Paul weakened as it closed in on a sparsely populated area of Mexico's Baja peninsula on Tuesday, while Hurricane Rafael was expected to miss Bermuda in the Atlantic, the United States National Hurricane Centre said.
Paul weakened to a Category 1 hurricane as it churned about 70km south of Cabo San Lazaro and it was expected to make landfall by Tuesday afternoon, the centre said.
The storm was moving north at 28km/h with maximum wind speeds of 150km/h, the centre said.
“It is raining very hard, there is a lot of wind. It is not the time to go out,” said Margarito Medina, a civil protection official in Comondu, the county where local officials expected the hurricane to make landfall.
Medina said shelters for 4 000 people had been readied in the area, frequented by fishermen and tourists.
The US centre said Paul could cause dangerous coastal waves and possible of flash floods.
The Mexican government has issued a hurricane warning from Santa Fe northward to Punta Abreojos on the country's western Baja peninsula and extended the warning to the eastern coast of Baja from San Evaristo to Mulege, the centre said.
The storm is not expected to hit the tourist resort of Los Cabos. Mexico has no important oil installations along its Pacific coast.
In the Atlantic, Hurricane Rafael churned toward Bermuda on Tuesday, but was expected to pass east of the British territory and continue moving over open seas.
Rafael was centred 315km south of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 37km/h. It had top sustained winds of 140km/h.
Authorities cancelled several international flights as Rafael approached. The Bermuda Weather Service said the storm's centre would move approximately 190km east of Bermuda later on Tuesday. - Reuters