Hurricane Jimena swirls past Mexico coast

Hurricane Jimena weakened to a Category 2 storm as it bore down on the coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Jimena's maximum sustained winds decreased late yesterday to near 175 kph and the National Hurricane Center in Miami said it was expected to weaken further before making landfall on Wednesday.

Jimena's change in status came a day after the hurricane brushed passed the resort towns at the southern tip of the Baja California, lashing them with driving rain and winds.

Despite the pummeling by the fringes of the then-Category 3 hurricane, the Mexican peninsula's biggest resort, Los Cabos, appeared to be escaping major damage beyond power outages and mud-choked roads.

Dozens of people evacuated from the Los Congrejos shantytown huddled in darkened rooms at a school after electricity failed during the storm. Trying to calm squalling babies and ignore hunger, the evacuees waited for dawn, and a chance to look at what the hurricane did to their homes made of plastic sheeting, wood and tar paper.

"Instead of giving out a few sheets of roofing every year, the bricks," said Paulino Hernandez, an out-of-work mason who sought haven at the school. "Every year it's the same thing: They (officials) give out a few sheets of roofing, and the next year it has to be replaced" when a hurricane comes.