La Paz Mexico Travels: John roars into Baja’s Cabo San Lucas on Mexico’s Pacific coast

1. Various of couple looking at the sea form balcony
2. Various of sea
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Joy Grubb, tourist from San Antonio:
++ CUTAWAYS INCLUDED++
” I’m worried about the fact that my children are very worried, my daughters have called me very concerned but, I mean, like I told them yesterday of God wanted me he could have taken me a long time ago. He didn’t need to take me in a storm so…”
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Bob Grubb, tourist from San Antonio:
” I usually do all of the worrying for the two of us.”
5. Cutaway of beach
6. Various of hotel or condominium
7. Man looking at panel with information on the hurricane
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Britton, tourist from Houston:
” I’ve been through thirteen (hurricanes) and they are all different, they all surprise you in the end, I know that.”
9. Woman cleaning flooded room
10. Swimming pool
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Charlotte Bailey, tourist from Kansas City:
” I was nervous about being here after having miss our flight and being rescheduled but once we have found a more secure room in a steadier hotel I feel better about it, waiting it.”
12. Woman walking with umbrella through flooded floor
13. Wide of Cabo San Lucas
14. Various of the ocean
15. Wide hotel “Tesoro” entrance
16. Various of shelter in hotel “Tesoro”
17. People watching weather report
18. Close up of monitor
19. SOUNDBITE: (English) Shauna O’Leary, tourist from San Francisco:
“We have a few plans, one of them involves goggles. We brought our goggles with us just in case we have to go for a swim.
20. Medium of tourists watching television screen
21. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sheree Bayeur, tourist from San Francisco:
“It’s been a long day of what ifs and there is still more to come.”
22. Push in from wide to medium of flooded streets
23. Wide of workers pulling cars out of flooded road
24. Medium of police workers moving car in flooded street/pull out wide
25. Reporter speaking to Los Cabos Deputy Mayor Angel Marquez
26. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Angel Marquez, Los Cabos Deputy Mayor:
“Some people are resisting (being evacuated). There is certain resistence by some people (to evacuate) with good reason. They are afraid of losing their belongings.”
27. Wide of people on line for food
28. Medium of woman receiving plate of food
29. Close up of boy holding cups
30. Medium of woman with baby
STORYLINE
Powerful Hurricane John bore down on the resorts of Cabo San Lucas and Los Cabos in Mexico on Friday as droves of tourists sought the last flights out or took shelter in hotels while many shantytown residents were ordered to evacuate.
The Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour (115 miles per hour) was advancing on the southern tip of Baja California at 7 miles per hour (11 kilometres per hour).
The US Hurricane Centre in Miami predicted the eye of the storm would pass “near or over Baja California” later on Friday.
On Thursday night, local police drove through the shantytown of La Palma, where tarp and tarpaper shacks line a dry riverbed, to warn people to move to safer locations.
In a letter, the administration asked those who chose to stay in their rooms to hunker down in the bathrooms.
For local residents, shelters were set up in 131 schools. State Governor Narciso Agundez said residents who refused to head for higher ground would be forcibly removed from their homes.
Shop owners and hotels boarded up windows and hotel workers stripped rooms of light fixtures and furniture, in case plate-glass windows shattered
Between 7-thousand and 8-thousand tourists who remained in Cabo San Lucas were relocated to hotel ballrooms and rooms away from the beach to wait out the powerful storm.