The remnants of Tropical Storm Vance have hammered Mexico's Pacific coast, leaving flooded streets, a partially submerged hospital and two people dead in its wake.
The heaviest damage landed in two places. In San José del Cabo, at the southern tip of Baja California Sur, torrential rain arrived around mid-morning and quickly overwhelmed drainage. Water pushed past 1.20-metre containment barriers at the IMSS clinic, forcing the evacuation of roughly 350 patients and staff. Fire crews led by commander Omar Barreras Núñez deployed brigades to the Costa Azul area, the Ricardo Flores Magón stream, the Santa Rosa neighbourhood and El Tildillo, where twelve people were pulled to safety. Cabo San Lucas saw road damage and at least one dramatic rescue after a woman was caught in a flash flood.
Further north, the storm's aftermath proved deadly in Guaymas, Sonora. Rain began before dawn and flooded wide parts of the city; two men — 54-year-old Juan José Carbadillo and Jesús Alberto Meléndez — drowned after their car was swept into strong currents and trapped beneath a bridge on Tetabiate Boulevard. The fire department's aquatic rescue team recovered the bodies. Neighbouring Empalme also activated an emergency operation.
The misery stretched down the coast into Sinaloa, where around 50 residents of the town of Ceuta were moved into a temporary shelter at a school after floodwater reached a metre deep, according to mayor Richard Millán Vázquez. Across all three states, authorities closed roads and suspended classes.
Vance had earlier been a category 2 hurricane as it wandered the Pacific before making landfall with high winds, storm surge, flooding and tornado potential. It is now a post-tropical system — the 20th named storm of the Eastern Pacific season — but Los Cabos Civil Protection, citing the National Meteorological Service, warned that more rain is still expected.
Why it matters: Los Cabos is one of Mexico's biggest resort regions, drawing hundreds of thousands of international visitors a year, many of them arriving on direct flights for beach holidays. Anyone with trips booked to Cabo San Lucas, San José del Cabo or the broader Baja and mainland Pacific coast over the coming days should check with their hotel and airline, monitor advisories from Mexican Civil Protection and the SMN, and expect residual disruption — damaged roads, closed attractions and lingering rain — even as the storm itself dissipates. Late-season Eastern Pacific storms are a reminder that hurricane season runs well beyond the summer months, so travel insurance with weather cover is worth considering for autumn Pacific-coast trips.
