A woman walks along the shore Monday in Mazatlan, Mexico, on the Pacific coast near Baja California. A woman walks along the shore Monday in Mazatlan, Mexico, on the Pacific coast near Baja California. (Alejandro Acosta/Reuters)A dangerous and powerful Hurricane Jimena brought heavy surf, high winds and drenching rain to Mexico's Baja California peninsula Tuesday.

A man sets wooden boards on a store window in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, on Monday as Hurricane Jimena approaches. A man sets wooden boards on a store window in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, on Monday as Hurricane Jimena approaches. (Guillermo Arias/Associated Press) Jimena, a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 215 km/h, was expected to make landfall north of the popular resort area of Los Cabos.

"It could be ugly at Bahia Magdalena," said Baja California Sur State Interior Secretary Luis Armanado Diaz said, talking about a thinly-populated bay with some fishing villages. Officials predicted landfall would come in an even more remote area, farther north of Magdalena.

Forecasters said the storm was expected to weaken while still at sea, and then lose strength quickly after it makes landfall.

Earlier Tuesday, police, firefighters and navy personnel drove through shantytowns, trying to persuade 10,000 people to evacuate shacks made of plastic sheeting, wood, reeds and even blankets. But many residents feared that their few possessions — a TV, radio or refrigerator — would be stolen if they left.

Baja California officials prepared shelters for up to 29,000 people displaced by the storm.

Many tourists rushed to leave Los Cabos as heavy rains began pounding the region. Hotels were at a 25 per cent occupancy rate, according to the local hotel association. The group estimated 7,000 tourists were left in Los Cabos.

TS Erika forms in Atlantic

While Jimena powered its way toward Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said a fifth named storm had formed in the Atlantic.

Forecasters said slow moving tropical storm Erika formed east of the northern Leeward Islands with winds of 95 km/h. At 11 p.m. ET, the storm was 585 kilometres east of the islands. The storm was reported to be wandering, but was expected to begin moving west-northwest at 13 km/h on Wednesday.

Tropical storm watches were posted for St. Maarten, St. Martin, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Aguilla and St. Barthélemy.

A scheduled meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development at a Los Cabos resort was relocated to Mexico City for safety concerns, the group said Tuesday.

But on the famous Cabos beaches, some tourists were defying the storm, jumping into the Pacific Ocean to play in the hurricane's big waves.

At 8 p.m. PT, Jimena was centred about west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas and was moving north-northwest at nearly 20 km/h, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 75 kilometres from the centre.

Forecasters expect Jimena to dump between 125 and 250 millimetres of rain on southern Baja California and parts of western Mexico.

With files from The Associated Press