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Hurricane Lorena Moves Up Baja Peninsula, Los Cabos Flights Resume

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (CBSLA/AP) — Hurricane Lorena spared the resort-studded twin cities of Los Cabos a direct hit, instead heading up the east coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula early Saturday prompting new warnings and watches in that coastal area.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Lorena was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, and its center was about 55 miles north-northwest of La Paz, Mexico. It was heading to the northwest at 9 mph on a forecast track parallel to the coast through the Sea of Cortez.

It was expected to approach the northwestern coast of mainland Mexico late Saturday and Sunday.

Flights out of LAX and John Wayne airports to Los Cabos resumed Saturday.

Kristi Cook from Laguna Beach was one of dozens of Southwest Airlines passengers who saw their flights cancelled or delayed after the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Lorena from a tropical storm to a Category 1 Hurricane early Friday.

More than a dozen flights between Los Cabos International and Los Angeles International airports had been canceled, according to LAX's website.

Lorena Upgraded To Category 1 Hurricane As It Nears Cabo San Lucas
Hurricane Lorena floods streets in Jalisco, Mexico. Sept. 19, 2019.

The category 1 hurricane turned streets in Jalisco - about 1,200 miles away from the Baja peninsula - into muddy rivers. A hurricane warning was in effect for the Baja California peninsula from La Paz to Puerto Cortes. Heavy flash flooding was possible.

Cook said she's moved from her resort in Cabo to her son Ryan's home to ride out the storm. They were on the roof Friday afternoon before the
hurricane hit.

"I don't know when I'll get home," she said. "We've got provisions."

Lorena came onshore a day earlier as a hurricane in the western Mexican state of Colima, whipping palm trees about with its strong winds and lashing the area with sheets of rain. It flooded streets, washed out roads and touched off minor slides in 10 municipalities. Dozens of trees were downed, and power was knocked out in some areas.

Civil defense official Carlos Godínez said Friday a tourist who went to the beach in Los Cabos with his son died after being swept out to sea. The son survived. But Godínez said the death occurred early Thursday, before beach access was restricted, and that it was "not necessarily attributable" to Lorena.

Authorities suspended classes for Friday and prepared to use schools as shelters if necessary. The port of Cabo San Lucas was closed to navigation.

"Lorena is going to dump a lot of water," said Carlos Alfredo Godínez, deputy secretary for civil defense in the state.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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