Polo Storm made landfall in Mexico on Tuesday as a Category 2 hurricane, striking just south of Las Barrancas, about 80 miles north of Cabo San Lazaro, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. After crossing the Gulf of California, it weakened and made a second landfall in Sonora by late Tuesday morning, pushing rain and flooding concerns farther inland.
For residents in Baja California Sur, the storm was not an abstraction. Elbia María Bachomo left with her three children for a shelter Monday as water began flooding into their home, one of about 700 people still in shelters on Tuesday. She said she feared coming back to nothing, then added that they were lucky. Even with flooded coastal areas and streets littered with fallen trees, authorities reported no serious damage or deaths immediately.
The storm’s reach was broader than the coastline. Bands of rain continued to sweep across the U.S. Southwest on Tuesday, and nearly all of the region was under flood watches. Forecasters warned that north-central New Mexico, including Albuquerque and Santa Fe, could receive as much as 3 to 4 inches of rain through Wednesday. That threat came as Tropical Storm Rachel moved parallel to Mexico’s coast early Tuesday, about 265 miles southwest of Lazaro Cardenos, with winds of 65 mph and a west-northwest track of 13 mph.
The immediate risk now is not just what Polo already did, but how much more water it can leave behind as it moves inland. In places where rain usually falls sparingly and the ground cannot absorb much at once, that is the difference between a hard night and a dangerous one. A truck was already swept away in a wash in the New River area north of Phoenix, though the driver got out safely, and floodwater was raging near Zion National Park in Utah, carrying a shipping container downstream. Flooding had already begun Monday night in Orderville, Utah.
Sonora officials suspended all nonessential activities, including school, sports and nonessential work in the state capital and more than a dozen municipalities, as the storm moved through. The question left open is whether the 6 to 12 inches of rain expected across parts of Baja California Sur will be the worst of it, or whether the inland flooding and washouts will keep building through Wednesday.
