TIJUANA The powerful storm soaking the region chased families from their homes, brought down power lines and trees and flooded major thoroughfares on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Public classes were suspended Tuesday, giving thousands of children a one-day early start to their winter break.
Bernabé Castellanos, a supervisor in the Tjuana Fire Department, said that by around 9 a. m. emergency personnel responded to calls of scattered power outages and some property damage.
A landslide in a hill in colonia Las Cruces, in the citys south side, led to the evacuation of at least three families around 4 a.m. Tuesday, he said.
The rain flooded the main east-west highways, vías rápidas Oriente y Poniente, as well as avenida Internacional, which connect the entire city. Authorities shut two of the three lanes in the vías rápidas after vehicles had gotten stuck and had to be towed out.
Overnight and during the morning, firefighters responded to dozens of reports of downed lines and fallen trees, which led to power outages in the heavily populated neighborhoods of colonias Mariano Matamoros, El Florido, El Rubí, Centro and El Refugio.
Municipal authorities opened shelters across the city on Monday, as the region braced for powerful rains expected to last at least until Wednesday night.
