Vance Remnants Flood Los Cabos and Sweep Cars Out to Sea; Two Men Drown in Sonora

Since the first heavy rain hit Los Cabos on Tuesday, Oct. 27, the remnants of Tropical Storm Vance have worked their way up Mexico's Pacific side. The worst day was Friday, Oct. 30, when flash floods swept cars into the ocean, forced a hospital evacuation and killed two men in Sonora.

This is the Mexican half of the storm system that also sent flood warnings across Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico over the weekend.

Cars into the sea at Costa Azul

Video geolocated by CNN shows at least three cars carried into the sea near a road bridge beside the beach at the Costa Azul arroyo in San José del Cabo. An arroyo is a normally dry creek bed that fills fast in heavy rain.

Residents told El Universal that several of the vehicles belonged to hotel workers who routinely park near the streambed. They did not realize how quickly it can rise once rain falls upstream.

Rainfall figures vary. The Gringo Gazette put the Friday total at more than 100 millimeters, roughly 4 inches. The Cabo Sun, citing local meteorological data, reported nearly 7 inches within a few hours.

The flooding was not new that day. On Oct. 27, state authorities recorded 60 millimeters (2.4 inches) in Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. The national forecast issued early that day had called for only 5 to 25 millimeters. Schools closed Oct. 28.

Hospital evacuated, roads buried

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) said 350 people were evacuated from its clinic in San José del Cabo after water topped the building's 1.20-meter containment barriers. The Gringo Gazette reported that IMSS Clínica 6, at Coronado and Hidalgo streets downtown, took on significant water and that its pumping equipment could not keep up.

At the IMSS Clínica 38 parking lot in Guaymitas, at least 15 vehicles were buried in mud and debris, according to the community group Colectivo Pericú. Another eight cars stuck in sediment at the Santa Rosa arroyo crossing.

At the San José Viejo crossing near the Ley supermarket, sand, rock and debris closed the road for about an hour and a half. The federal highway agency CAPUFE waived tolls on the nearby toll road so airport-bound drivers had an alternate route.

By mid-afternoon a second band of rain reached Cabo San Lucas. It flooded the Aguajitos and Lagunitas crossings and Tamaral street in the Chula Vista neighborhood. Evening classes were suspended citywide.

The response

Los Cabos fire chief Omar Barreras Núñez said his crews rescued 12 people from the Costa Azul area, the Ricardo Flores Magón stream, the Santa Rosa neighborhood and El Tildillo. A woman caught in a flash flood in Cabo San Lucas was also rescued.

The Mexican Navy said it activated "Plan Marina" at its emergency-response phase. It deployed 100 members of its Emergency Response Brigade, plus vehicles and an ambulance, to help residents, monitor dangerous crossings and assist stranded drivers.

Civil Protection, the National Guard, the Army, municipal police and firefighters also deployed. Authorities ran an operation called Cruce Seguro (Safe Crossing), posting personnel at major arroyo crossings to keep people from wading into moving water.

None of the accounts of the Los Cabos flooding reports a death there. Earlier, on Oct. 27, local video and residents described a man dragged toward the sea at the Cabo San Lucas marina who grabbed a railing and was pulled out by bystanders.

Deaths in Sonora, shelters in Sinaloa

The two confirmed deaths came farther north, in Guaymas, Sonora. Two men drowned when a car was swept away by strong currents and trapped under a bridge on Tetabiate Boulevard. Local reports identified them as Juan José Carbadillo, 54, and Jesús Alberto Meléndez. Firefighters used the aquatic rescue team to recover the bodies.

Rain in Guaymas began around 4 a.m. Friday. Authorities also deployed an emergency operation in neighboring Empalme.

In Sinaloa, Mayor Richard Millán Vázquez said about 50 people were moved to a temporary shelter in a school in Ceuta after meter-deep flooding.

What comes next

By Saturday, Oct. 31, the heaviest rain bands had shifted east toward the Gulf of California, according to the Gringo Gazette. Vance is now a post-tropical system and the 20th named storm of the Eastern Pacific season.

North of the border, the National Weather Service said wet weather would continue through Monday, Nov. 2, across Arizona and the Four Corners. The Pagosa Springs flooding that prompted evacuations is covered in our earlier reporting.

In Baja California Sur, mud and runoff were still on parts of the Transpeninsular highway near Costa Azul after the Oct. 27 round of flooding. Mayor Christian Agúndez Gómez has ordered cleanup. State and municipal authorities have not released a damage total or a final casualty count for Baja California Sur.