LOS CABOS, Mexico -- Mexican police on Thursday vowed to crack down on lawlessness and restore order in the hurricane-stricken resort area of Los Cabos after looting emptied store shelves and unnerved residents who worried their homes could be next.
Enrique Galindo, national commissioner of the Federal Police, said seven people, two of whom were carrying firearms, were detained on suspicion of attempted looting. He said police would aggressively enforce the law.
There were reports of gunfire overnight, and residents in Los Cabos lit large bonfires to try to protect their neighborhoods as they faced a fourth day without power or running water after the blow from Hurricane Odile. Police announced they would stop and question anyone on the streets after nightfall to make sure they had a legitimate reason to be out.
"The problem is no longer the hurricane," resident David Garcia said in a radio interview. "Everything started with the looting. Not even eight hours had passed since the hurricane before people started destroying stores."
Baja California Sur state prosecutors reported the first known death from Odile late Thursday, saying a Korean citizen had drowned when he and another man tried to cross a swollen creek in the port town of Santa Rosalia during the storm. The second man was missing, officials said.
Mexican marines and sailors also were searching for two foreigners reported missing aboard a sailboat in the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California. Their nationalities were not released.
Los Cabos' heavily damaged international airport was being powered by an emergency generator from the Federal Electricity Commission.
The U.S. State Department advised stranded travelers to go there as soon as possible and be prepared to wait as long as necessary to get on a flight out.
At the airport, thousands were in line under the burning sun as four planes waited on the tarmac. Travelers wheeled rolling suitcases across the asphalt and up the rear ramp of a Mexican air force transport plane, and strapped themselves in for a flight to Mexico City. Some of the passengers snapped selfies.
"We feel relieved ... even if we still have to coordinate our next flight," said Courtney Tague, a 48-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "After seeing what was going on -- massive looting, no cellphone, no running water ... it was frightening."
Tourism Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu said 8,000 people, including tourists and locals anxious to leave, would be airlifted out Thursday.
Water and electricity service remained out and phone service was intermittent. Federal Electricity Commission officials said some 2,500 power poles were toppled by Odile, which struck Sunday as a Category 3 hurricane.
Civil Protection officials reported that the town of Bahia de Los Angeles in the state of Baja California was cut off because of storm damage to the only highway that serves it. A long stretch of the asphalt was completely washed out, and a tractor-trailer lay on its side in the mud.
In the Baja California Sur state capital of La Paz, where Odile hit with less intensity, Mayor Esthela Ponce said 10,000 homes were damaged. Electricity and running water had been restored to about 30 percent of customers.
After hammering the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of northern Mexico in recent days, the remnants of Odile soaked much of southeastern Arizona but spared the state's metropolitan areas. Arizona residents had stocked up on sandbags after a forecast of up to 5 inches of rain in Tucson and Phoenix, but the cities were not hit as hard as predicted.
The worst-hit area of Arizona was near the U.S.-Mexico border, where Nogales received about 3 inches of rain and Bisbee got about 5 inches.
In New Mexico, much of the state remained under a flash flood watch as officials began preparing for more possible severe weather.
To the south, Hurricane Polo weakened to a tropical storm off Mexico's Pacific coast. It was headed in the general direction of Los Cabos although early predictions were for the center to remain offshore and sweep past Sunday.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Polo was 150 miles south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes on Thursday night. It had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph and was moving northwest at 9 mph.
In the central Atlantic, Hurricane Edouard also weakened to a tropical storm. It was forecast to remain far from land, although officials warned that swells could cause dangerous surf along parts of the U.S. East Coast.
In Maryland, officials said two men drowned Wednesday in strong rip currents believed to be caused by Edouard.
Information for this article was contributed by Miguel Cervantes, Dario Lopez-Mills, Terry Tang and Paul Davenport of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/19/2014