#117 Postby gilbert88 » Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:13 am
Lane lessens to a tropical depression
Once-mighty Hurricane Lane quickly weakened to a rainy tropical depression Sunday as residents in this flooded resort hauled bags of mud out of their homes and tourists sloshed through ankle-deep water to souvenir shops
Wire services
El Universal
September 18, 2006
MAZATLÁN, Sinaloa - Once-mighty Hurricane Lane quickly weakened to a rainy tropical depression Sunday as residents in this flooded resort hauled bags of mud out of their homes and tourists sloshed through ankle-deep water to souvenir shops.
The muddied city was bouncing back less than 24 hours after the Category 3 hurricane swept cars down streets, toppled trees, crumpled billboards and cut off the main highway to the state capital of Culiacán. The storm left one person dead outside Culiacán.
Some tourists in Mazatlán sat in Jacuzzis under a light drizzle, or waded to shops and restaurants as they opened their previously boarded-up doors.
Others were trying desperately to get out.
Robert Brown, 44, who builds race car engines in Aberdeen, Mississippi, said he was told that flights out of Mazatlán were full on Sunday, so he and his wife were considering a seven-hour bus ride to Puerto Vallarta to catch a flight home.
"I don´t really know what to do now," said Brown. "We don´t know how the roads will be, but we also don´t know how else we´ll get out."
Lane´s outer winds raked Mazatlán on Saturday before it plowed into the Pacific coast to the northwest with winds of near 205 kph (125 mph). It quickly lost force as it marched north and the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded it on Sunday to a rain-heavy tropical depression with winds of less than 60 kph (38 mph).
Luis Sainz, an official with the Public Safety Secretariat in the state of Sinaloa, said there was one confirmed death in the town of Emiliano Zapata outside Culiacán - a man who was blown off the roof of his house during the storm Saturday.
Sainz said the highway linking Mazatlán to Culiacán had been cut by debris in seven places, leaving dozens of motorists stranded. He did not know how long it would take to repair the road.
RETURNING HOME
Gerardo Delgado, spokesman for the Red Cross in Culiacán, said the 3,000 evacuees around the state were returning to their homes.
Noé Tobar, 23, who was sweeping palm fronds and water from his concrete-floor house, said the city should be back on its feet within no time.
"We were hit with a lot of rain, but give us a few days and everything will be back to normal," he said.
Nearby, Martín García, a 19-year-old musician, was hauling plastic bags full of mud out of the cement dwelling he shares with seven others.
"It looked really serious because of the amount of water," said Garcia, adding that the floodwaters went up to the edge of his family´s beds. "We heard it was going to hit here. I´m glad it went farther north, but even so it left us flooded."
Lane had marched up the Pacific coast earlier in the week, causing a landslide that killed a 7-year-old boy on Thursday in Acapulco and flooding across western Mexico that forced hundreds of people to abandon their homes.
HURRICANE JOHN
Less then two weeks earlier, Hurricane John unleashed wind and rain on tourist resorts on the southern Baja California peninsula across the Gulf of California from here, killing five people and damaging 160 homes.
Further out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Miriam had maximum winds of about 75 kph (45 mph) Sunday. Forecasters said there was a slight chance it would turn toward land later in the week and hit a sparsely populated section of the peninsula´s coastline.
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Click on the more views icon under the map. It will open a new window and you can zoom in from there. It's not great - but the best I could find quickly. 
