Hurricane season in the Pacific officially runs from May 15 – November 30 and it has been a pretty busy one so far, with two hurricanes in one week affecting over 30,000 tourists visiting the Los Cabos area. The most recent storm, Hurricane Kay, is the 11th named storm to develop so far this year. Only two of those storms remained tropical storms before breaking up, while the other nine all developed into hurricanes.
Two of the storms, Bonnie and Darby, both of which took place in July, turned into major hurricanes. Hurricane Kay, which just passed by Los Cabos this week, strengthened into a Category 2 storm in the early hours of Wednesday. While it has not reached major hurricane status, it did do some damage along the way, particularly in the Mexican state of Guerrero, where it has caused significant flooding, damage to buildings, and even a few deaths.
Javier was the last storm to affect Los Cabos, with Hurricane Kay forming as the remnants of Javier were weakening. The storm caused flooding in Los Cabos and in other areas throughout Baja California Sur, the state in which Los Cabos resides. Los Cabos, or “The Capes,” which is what Los Cabos literally translates to, consists of San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, two very popular vacation destinations for tourists from the U.S. and Canada.
As a result of Javier’s passing, beach flags were used to inform tourists of the dangers caused by the storm. The strong waves and high winds made beach conditions hazardous during periods of the storm and now black flags were posted on various beaches again to warn of the dangerous conditions caused by Kay. In addition, Javier was responsible for a significant amount of garbage on the beaches following the storm as well, which also made beach visits undesirable for tourists.
This all comes as more than 30,000 tourists are currently visiting the state of Baja California Sur, with the majority of them vacationing in Los Cabos. This was reported by the Ministry of Tourism, Economy and Sustainability, also known as Setues. It was also reported that Los Cabos hotel occupancy is at around 54 percent right now.
Head of the Ministry, Maribel Collins Sánchez, put this percentage in perspective. She stated that “with regard to the tourism sector, I share with you that hotel associations have reported to us that Los Cabos has an average occupancy of 54%, which means 25,000 tourists.” Fortunately, hotels have plans in place to keep tourists safe when Los Cabos is affected by hurricanes and tropical storms.
Each hotel has its own hurricane plan but the local Hotel Association has an area-wide plan set up as well. Hotels are able to operate as shelters for tourists during storms but they also have evacuation plans in place in case of an emergency that requires visitors to leave the buildings. Anyone visiting Los Cabos when a storm warning is issued should immediately familiarize themselves with their hotel’s plans.
The 2022 Hurricane Season is not quite half over so Los Cabos is not out of the woods yet. The peak of the season is generally in late August but it was a slower than usual month, with more activity taking place in these early days of September. With any luck, the Hurricane Season will now start to wind down, so that tourists in the coming months don’t have to have their vacations interfered with by more storms.