They are calling Hurricane Odile a monster storm, and this huge storm headed straight for the tourist town of Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas, making landfall Sunday night at approximately 9:45 pm with maximum sustained winds of 89 mph and gusts up to 116 mph, making it a category 3 storm. This morning, a hurricane warning remains in effect from Punta Abreojos to Santa Rosalia. The rest of the Baja peninsula is under a tropical storm warning, and ports have been closed.

Tourists were trapped in their hotels as the storm made its way through Cabo, and residents were forced to head to shelters. Some tourists braved out the storm at Los Cabos International Airport where 22 flights or more were canceled. The national coordinator for Mexico’s civil protection agency reported that 164 shelters were made ready to accommodate up to 30,000 people.

Said RT @borntofork via Twitter: “#odile didn’t mess around last night. The beach now starts at the pool.” “Overcome with emotion. Taking a first look outside and it’s so bad. Tile, glass, pipes and broken trees on our porch,” tweeted Sarah S. McKinney ‏@SSinArkansas.

Because of the size of the storm, the entire Baja peninsula is being affected, with the expectation that warnings will remain in effect until Monday night. The good news is the storm is losing strength. At 5 am it was downgraded to a category 2 storm, which still means highly volatile winds of up to 110 mph. Odile is moving in a northwesterly direction at around 16 mph.

Weather forecasters are watching the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere, as these may gather moisture from Odile and another weather system off the California coast. This could cause heavy rains to fall over Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico, where they already dealt with flash floods last week caused by what remained of Hurricane Norbert.