\\\'Dangerous\\\' hurricane hits Mexico Pacific resorts

CABO SAN LUCAS, Sep 15 (AFP): Thousands of tourists and locals in Mexico hunkered down in luxury hotels converted into shelters Monday after Hurricane Odile crashed into Los Cabos resorts in the northwest, taking down trees with powerful winds.

The "dangerous" hurricane, a category three storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, packed 205-kilometer (125-mile) per hour winds when it made landfall near Cabo San Lucas in late Sunday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

Hurricane-force winds spread northward as the eye of the storm moved over the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula, the NHC said.

At 0600 GMT, Odile was packing winds of 195 kilometers per hour as it moved north-northwest at 28 kilometers per hour.

The storm took down trees, power lines and roof tiles as it crashed into the Baja California peninsula, said National Civil Protection coordinator Luis Felipe Puente.

Forecasters warned that heavy rains-up to 46 centimeters (18 inches) in some areas-could produce life-threatening floods and mudslides.

"There was no light here, and we were completely in the dark," said Wenseslao Petit, director of civil protection of Los Cabo located on the tip of the Baja California Sur peninsula.

Some 26,000 foreign tourists and another 4,000 Mexicans were staying in 18 hotels converted into temporary shelters, officials said.