La Paz Mayor Milena Quiroga Romero activated the city’s Operativo Huracanes 2026 on Monday, making it the first municipality in Mexico to launch a comprehensive hurricane preparedness plan ahead of the upcoming cyclone season. The official start of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season is May 15, and forecasters expect it to be one of the most active in recent years.
The operation deploys 732 emergency personnel, 89 vehicles, 17 ambulances, eight motorcycles, and six aerial monitoring drones. Participating agencies include municipal Protección Civil (Civil Protection), the municipal police, the fire department, the Mexican Navy, the National Guard, the Mexican Red Cross, and volunteer groups such as Cimarrones, Calafia, and EBRE.
32 Shelters and High-Risk Flood Points
City officials have activated 32 temporary shelters with a combined capacity for more than 2,450 people. Twelve specialized rapid-response brigades will be on standby throughout the season.
The municipality will also run its “Cruces Seguros” (Safe Crossings) program at 27 points identified as high risk for flooding and water runoff. La Paz sits on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, a stretch historically among the most hurricane-exposed on Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Coordination Across All Levels of Government
Quiroga Romero said the operation follows guidelines from CENAPRED’s Tropical Cyclone Early Warning System (SIAT-CT) and the national civil protection system known as SINAPROC. The city is coordinating directly with the federal government under President Claudia Sheinbaum and with the Baja California Sur state government led by Governor Víctor Castro Cosío.
Hurricane season in Baja California Sur runs from May through November, with peak activity typically in August and September. La Paz was severely affected by Hurricane Odile in 2014, a Category 3 storm that caused widespread damage across the southern cape region.
Quiroga Romero said the early activation, four days before the season’s official start, was intentional. The La Paz government’s official news site quoted her saying the city does not wait for a cyclone to make landfall before acting.
Originally reported by Noticias La Paz.