San Francisco Chronicle

More record heat on Saturday.

- By Ignacio Martinez Ignacio Martinez is an Associated Press writer.

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — A weakening Tropical Storm Lidia marched up Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Saturday after flooding streets and homes in resort cities, stranding tourists and leaving at least five people dead.

Lidia’s maximum sustained winds dropped to 40 mph, just above the minimum threshold for a tropical storm, as it passed over a sparsely populated area of the peninsula that is home to a large nature reserve. It was forecast to head back out over the open Pacific and lose more strength.

Authoritie­s have said the death toll could rise over the weekend as emergency crews survey the damage in villages. One person was considered missing and video broadcast on local networks showed vehicles being swept away by flooded rivers.

The dead included two people electrocut­ed by power lines, a woman drowned after being swept away by water on a flooded street and a baby ripped from its mother’s arms as she crossed a flooded area. Baja California Sur Gov. Carlos Mendoza said late Friday that there was a fifth victim but did not give details.

State Tourism Secretary Luis Genero Ruiz said about 20,000 tourists were stranded after airlines suspended flights to the area.

About 1,400 people had sought refuge at storm shelters as the storm flooded streets.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Lidia made landfall early Friday west of La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur state.

The storm was centered east of Punta Eugenia on Saturday and was heading northwest.

Earlier Lidia spread rains over a broad swath of Mexico including the capital, where it was blamed for flooding that briefly closed the city’s airport.

The hurricane center forecast that some of the storm’s tropical moisture would affect the U.S. desert Southwest over the Labor Day weekend, including parts of western Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada, in the form of scattered showers and thundersto­rms.

Far out over the Atlantic, meanwhile, Hurricane Irma was following a course that could bring it near the eastern Caribbean Sea this week. It had maximum sustained winds near 110 mph and was moving west at 15 mph.

There was no immediate threat to land, and no coastal watches or warnings were in effect.

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