Hurricane Newton smashes into Mexico resort

La Paz, Mexico: Hurricane Newton battered Mexico´s northwestern resort of Los Cabos on Tuesday, tearing down trees and blowing away tin roofs as thousands of tourists and locals hunkered down.

The powerful storm packed 90 mile (145 kilometer) per hour winds when it made landfall before dawn at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, two years after Hurricane Odile ravaged the region.

The US National Hurricane Center said Newton was "pounding Baja California Sur with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains."

"The winds are very strong," Los Cabos civil protection director Marco Antonio Vazquez told AFP by telephone. "We don´t have light right now."

"For now the damage includes a lot of branches, a lot of fallen plants, many trees," Vazquez said, adding that he also saw telephone cables as well as tin roofs from poorer neighborhoods on the streets.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Some 14,000 tourists are in Los Cabos and about 1,000 elsewhere in the region.

There was no immediate information about the situation at hotels.

Some 1,500 people took refuge in shelters in Los Cabos, Vazquez said.

Local airports closed late Monday while small boats were barred from using the ports, with a storm surge expected to hit low-lying areas. Schools were shut down.

In La Paz, the capital of the state of Baja California Sur north of Los Cabos, locals put tape on shop windows and filled their cars with gasoline as the hurricane approached.

The US hurricane center´s latest bulletin placed the eye of Newton 50 miles northwest of Cabo San Lucas, one of the region´s resorts. It was just five miles from the town when it made landfall.

Los Cabos, famed for its beaches and nightlife, was pummelled in September 2014 by Hurricane Odile which left six people dead and caused $1 billion in damage.