Hurricane Ignacio pounded Mexico's Baja California on Monday with powerful 75 mph winds that knocked down trees and power posts in the semi-desert peninsula while heavy rains flooded roads.

Hurricane Ignacio is shown on August 25, 2003 at 10:15, a.m., EDT just east of La Paz, Mexico. Ignacio churned menacingly close to La Paz, on the east coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, a town of 170,000 and a stop-off point for yachtsmen from around the world.   [Reuters]

Authorities evacuated 3,000 people from high-risk areas to shelters as Ignacio hovered almost stationary very near La Paz, a fishing town of 170,000 and a stop-off point for yachting enthusiasts from around the world.

The storm was moving away from the golf and fishing resort area of Los Cabos. TV images showed cars and pickup trucks stranded in flooded rural coastal roads and locals, knee deep in water, using machetes to hack branches off fallen trees.

A Reuters cameraman reported swollen rivers were blocking roads on the west side of the peninsula.

High, frothy waves pummeled the eastern coast around La Paz, where the port and airport were shut. The winds had palm trees dancing and toppled billboards and shop signs.

Juan Manuel Rivera, head of Mexico's civil protection agency for the state of Baja California Sur, told local TV 3,000 people have been evacuated.

"There have been a few bits of damage to posts, trees and tracks," Alfonso Verdugo, spokesman for the agency, told Reuters.

MOVING AT SNAIL'S PACE Ignacio was downgraded to a Category 1 storm from Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of 1 to 5 late Sunday as sustained winds that earlier reached 105 mph dropped to 90 mph with higher gusts.

The hurricane sprang from nowhere over the weekend. In less than 24 hours it developed from a weak tropical storm to a hurricane and headed for the Sea of Cortes, between the Baja California peninsula and the Mexican mainland.

The eye of the storm was close to La Paz on Monday afternoon just offshore in the Sea of Cortes and moving west-northwestward at a snail's pace, just 3 mph.

"On this track the center will move near or along the southeast coast of Baja California this evening and tonight," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters said Ignacio, a well-formed but not a big hurricane, still posed a danger. "Storm total rainfall amount of 20 inches or more are possible in the warning area," the center said. "These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides."

James Franklin of the Miami-based hurricane center said Ignacio's strongest winds only spread 25 miles from its center. "It's a pretty small storm," he said. If you were not close to it, "you wouldn't even know it was there."

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