Hurricane Jimena, an extremely dangerous storm, raced toward Mexico's Baja California peninsula today, prompting residents to sandbag homes and disrupting a top-level finance conference.
Jimena's winds strengthened to nearly 250 km/h, just below the threshold of a deadly Category 5 storm, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
Category 5 hurricanes are the top of the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale and can be devastating if they hit land.
Much of Baja California is sparsely populated desert and mountains that are popular with nature lovers, surfers, sport fishermen and retirees. Los Cabos, which is more built up, attracts tourists to its golf courses, resorts and beaches.
Jimena was located about 300 km south of Cabo San Lucas and moving northwest, roughly parallel to the Mexican coastline, at 19 kph. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 75 km from its centre. The storm is expected to remain a major hurricane until landfall.
The Hurricane Centre forecast it would hit the Los Cabos area today and move inland on Wednesday, dumping up to 25 cm)of rain on southern Baja California.
Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the area. The Hurricane Centre predicted significant coastal flooding and said: "Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion."
Mexico, a major oil producer, has no oil installations in the Pacific. But ports in the area have started closing due to Jimena, which formed and built up quickly last weekend.
Economy officials from dozens of countries were due to meet in Los Cabos today and tomorrow to discuss tax havens, but the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development moved the talks to Mexico's capital as the storm threat grew.
The meeting was "transferred to Mexico City because of the threat of severe damage posed by Hurricane Jimena," the Paris-based group said in a statement.
The port of Cabo San Lucas was shut and a line of trailers formed as yachts, water taxis and glass-bottomed tourist boats were removed from the water for safety reasons.
Jimena is the second hurricane of the 2009 eastern Pacific season to brush close to Mexico after Andres pounded the coast in June and swept a fisherman to his death in Acapulco.