Mexico boosts Los Cabos security after looting

VIOLENCE. Gunfire. Looting. Destroyed buildings. Lawlessness has taken over at this stunning, popular resort area, with terrified tourist forced to flee to safety.

A man (pictured in white) tries to stop looters from storming into the Mega Supermarket.

POLICE have vowed to crack down on lawlessness and restore order in the hurricane-stricken resort area of Los Cabos after looting emptied store shelves and unnerved residents who worried their homes could be next.

Enrique Galindo, national commissioner of the Federal Police in Mexico, said seven people, two of whom were carrying firearms, were detained on suspicion of attempted looting. He said police would aggressively enforce the law.

There were reports of gunfire overnight, and residents in Los Cabos lit large bonfires to try to protect their neighbourhoods as they faced a fourth day without power or running water following the blow from Hurricane Odile. Police announced they would stop and question anyone on the streets after nightfall to make sure they had legitimate business at that hour.

“The problem is no longer the hurricane,” resident David Garcia said in a radio interview. “Everything started with the looting. Not even eight hours had passed since the hurricane before people started destroying stores.”

Hundreds of homes were destroyed here.

Los Cabos’ heavily damaged international airport was being powered by an emergency generator from the Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, and thousands of people stood in long lines under the burning sun to try to get on a flight out.

US diplomats were at the airport advising passengers to take the first available flight rather than wait for commercial carriers.

“We feel relieved,” said Courtney Tague, a 48-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who made it on a Mexican air force transport plane carrying 46 passengers to Mexico City. “Even if we still have to coordinate our next flight. After seeing what was going on — massive looting, no mobile phones, no running water ... it was frightening.”

Youths light a bonfire while they protect their homes.

Tourism Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu said 8000 people, including tourists and locals anxious to leave, would be flown out.

Water and electricity service remained out and phone service was intermittent. CFE officials said some 2500 power poles were toppled by Odile, which struck on Sunday as a Category 3 storm.

The roof of an auto dealership had collapsed onto a half-dozen cars, and debris was strewn about inside. Inside a waterlogged Wal-Mart superstore, there was nothing but puddles, trash, empty shelves and graffiti on the wall: “Long live crime!”

An employee fires a rifle at people trying to loot the store.

Some people lined up with 10 litre jugs and at a water station. Others ventured to the top of a small hill that seemed to be one of the few places with cellphone coverage.

Civil Protection officials reported that the town of Bahia de Los Angeles in the state of Baja California was cut off because of storm damage to the only highway that serves it. A long stretch of the asphalt was completely washed out, and a tractor-trailer lay on its side in the mud.

Tourists and locals are evacuated on a Mexican air force cargo plane.

In the Baja California Sur state capital of La Paz, where Odile hit with less intensity, Mayor Esthela Ponce said 10,000 homes were damaged. Electricity and running water had been restored to about 30 per cent of customers.

After hammering the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of northern Mexico in recent days, the remnants of Odile soaked much of south-eastern Arizona but spared the state’s metro areas.

A security guard stands in front of a Hyatt hotel destroyed by the hurricane.

To the south, Hurricane Polo was off Mexico’s Pacific coast and headed in the general direction of Los Cabos, although early predictions were for the centre to remain offshore and sweep past on Sunday.

Debris litters the floor of a Wal-Mart superstore.

The US National Hurricane Center said Polo was 240km southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 75km/h. It was moving northwest at 13km/h.

In the central Atlantic, Hurricane Edouard was forecast to remain far from land, although officials warned that swells could cause dangerous surf along parts of the US East Coast.

A boy walks away cases of beer from a convenience store destroyed by Hurricane Odile.

In Maryland, officials said two men drowned Wednesday in strong rip currents believed to be caused by Edouard.

People wait to be evacuated.

People stand on part of the collapsed Aduano bridge leading to Los Cabos.

People stand in line to receive free food from a Mega supermarket.

 

The area is popular with tourists.