Tropical storm Polo skirts Mexico’s battered Pacific coast

Washington: Tropical Storm Polo was due Sunday to skirt Mexico`s Baja California peninsula, a region still reeling after being leveled several days earlier by Hurricane Odile.

At 0000 GMT Sunday, Polo was passing about 105 miles (170 kilometers) south of Baja California, with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles (75 kilometers) per hour.

Polo was moving toward the northwest at eight miles (13 kilometers) per hour.

It was expected to remain off the southern tip of Baja California, but nevertheless generate sizeable ocean swells and carry heavy rains that could cause flash floods and mudslides.

One week earlier, Odile thrashed the Mexican coast as a powerful category three hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, flooding hotels and flattening homes.

Thousands of tourists have had to be airlifted from Baja`s Los Cabos and La Paz airports in the wake of Odile, and the region continues to suffer widespread power outages several days after the storm.