Polo hits Baja California Sur at Category 2, and the governor reports no deaths

Hurricane Polo made landfall in Baja California Sur as a Category 2 storm and, on the state government's count, killed no one in the three municipalities in its path. Governor Victor Manuel Castro said at President Claudia Sheinbaum's morning briefing on Tuesday that Comondu, Loreto and Mulege had a clean record on fatalities. About 700 people had gone to shelters as the storm approached. Some were expected to go home the same day. Damage assessment was still running.

The National Civil Protection Coordination put landfall around midnight Monday near Las Barrancas, on the coast of Comondu. Maximum sustained winds at the coast were 175 kilometres an hour, 109 miles an hour, with gusts to 205 kilometres an hour. NPR's account of the same landfall put the peak at 110 miles an hour as the storm struck Baja California Sur on Tuesday morning, then crossed the Gulf of California and weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland to the northeast. The two timings describe one crossing: a midnight landfall on the Pacific side, a morning still at hurricane strength, then a weaker storm over the gulf.

What the storm did on the peninsula

Puerto San Carlos, a fishing town on the peninsula, took floodwater through streets and into some houses. Residents waded past downed lines and trees in ankle-deep water. Electricity and water stayed on in Comondu, Loreto and Mulege, Castro's government said. Roads flooded, branches came down, and standing water sat in low streets. The absence of a death in those three municipalities is the fact the governor put on the record. It does not cover damage claims, which were still being counted on Tuesday, and it does not cover the mainland states the remnant later crossed.

Seven hundred people in shelters is a small number against the population of Baja California Sur, and a large number against the size of Las Barrancas and Puerto San Carlos. The shelter figure is the measure of how many households treated the warning as a reason to leave. A storm that arrives at midnight with 175 kilometre winds and finds the most exposed streets already partly empty is a different event from the same storm hitting a full town.

The remnant on the US side of the border

By Tuesday evening the remnant was over the US Southwest. The New Mexico Department of Transportation reported flooded roads and debris on highways. Parts of Arizona took enough rain for water rescues. Small towns in New Mexico evacuated over concern that a dam could fail. NPR reported those evacuations without a confirmed breach. The storm that had been a Category 2 at Las Barrancas was, a day later, a rain system on already wet ground. The US Southwest had been dealing with floodwater before Polo arrived. The remnant added another round.

No US fatality count tied to the remnant was in the Tuesday reports. The Mexican count, limited to three municipalities and given by the governor at the presidential briefing, is the firm number. A later civil-protection bulletin could add injuries or a death outside those three municipalities. As of the briefing, Castro's figure was zero.

What the next bulletin has to include

The missing public figures are the property count and the shelter return. Seven hundred people left home. The number who were back by Wednesday, and the number of houses with standing water in Puerto San Carlos, are the measures of whether the clean fatality record came with a large repair bill. Sheinbaum's briefing is the channel that number will travel on. Until it does, the operational fact is the one Castro gave: Category 2 at Las Barrancas, shelters used, power and water up, no deaths in Comondu, Loreto and Mulege.