Hundreds of foreign tourists raced to escape this luxury beach resort on Thursday as Hurricane John took aim at Mexico's Baja California peninsula and rescuers rushed local residents into shelters, according to Reuters. Holiday-makers in the Los Cabos resort, popular with U.S. tourists and famed for its beaches and Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses, hastily grabbed flights to safety before the storm hits on Friday. "I've messed enough with hurricanes," said Curtis Bickers, who was going to get married here on Saturday but abandoned the plans as John, a Category 3 hurricane, barreled in from the ocean. "I'm not going to take any chances whatsoever," said the 30-year-old lawyer who now plans to tie the knot in his hometown of Houston, where he was evacuated about a year ago when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast. Long lines of tourists waited at Los Cabos airport for flights out of the low-lying peninsula, which the U.S. National Hurricane Center said could be hit by wicked winds and life-threatening flash floods. In the resort, workers boarded up shop windows and residents stocked up on food and emergency supplies as the hurricane's first rains hit. John is packing sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph) and stronger gusts. It is forecast to make a direct hit on the resort, which is made up of two towns, Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Rescue workers began evacuating at least 10,000 Mexican residents from low-lying areas, said Jose Gajon, head of civil protection for the state of Baja California Sur. Gajon said they took them to temporary shelters, and that he might order the evacuation of 30,000 others. "Those who do not want to leave will be taken away by the army," Gajon said. Most of the resort's hotels have their own shelters where tourists could ride out the storm if they wanted. But some hotels were taking no chances and told guests to leave. "We are evacuating everyone," said Mithza Velazquez, concierge at the beachfront Hilton Hotel in Los Cabos. Martin Guillen, spokesman of the Casa del Mar hotel, said they were trying to evacuate as many guests as possible. "We are trying to convince people that they should leave for their own safety," he said. "The vast majority have changed their flights and are leaving today." Hurricane John lashed beaches and ports with torrential rain on Mexico's mainland on Thursday morning, but the storm stayed far enough out in the ocean to spare the mainland its full fury. Hurricane John swirled northwestward off the mainland about 60 miles (100 km) west of Cabo Corrientes on Thursday afternoon as it roared toward Los Cabos. After smacking into Los Cabos, the storm was expected to spin back out into the Pacific, posing no threat to the United States. In October, Hurricane Wilma hit Cancun and other beach resorts on Mexico's Caribbean coast. It caused massive damage, eroding large stretches of beach and stranding tens of thousands of tourists for days. Rainfall of 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm), with isolated deluges of 18 inches (45 cm), was possible over the southern part of Baja California and along Mexico's west coast. Meanwhile, the U.S. hurricane center issued a hurricane watch for a portion of coastline from South Carolina to North Carolina on Thursday as Tropical Storm Ernesto gained strength over the Atlantic.
