Los Cabos civil protection officials attended the National Meeting for the 2026 Rainy and Tropical Cyclone Season from April 22 to 24 in Boca del Río, Veracruz, where the municipality earned national recognition for its program certifying hotels as official emergency shelters.
Francisco Cota Márquez, director of Los Cabos Municipal Civil Protection and Risk Management, said his team participated in specialized workshops covering hurricane preparation, disaster response, recovery protocols, and risk scenario analysis. The three-day summit brought together civil protection agencies from across Mexico to coordinate ahead of the 2026 storm season.
Hotels as Emergency Shelters
The hotel certification program, which designates participating properties as official refuge points during major storms, was praised at the forum as a model for public-private coordination. Under the program, certified hotels open their doors as shelters for both residents and visitors when a hurricane threatens the Los Cabos corridor.
The distinction matters in a region with a 13% probability of a direct hurricane hit in any given year, the highest in all of Mexico according to Baja California Sur risk data. Hurricane Odile struck the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula in 2014 as the strongest storm on record for the state, causing catastrophic damage. More recently, Hurricane Lorena brought heavy rain, flooding, and mudslides to the Los Cabos area in September 2025.
2026 Season Begins June 1
The Eastern Pacific hurricane season officially starts June 1 and runs through November 30. Peak activity typically falls in August, September, and October. Since the devastation caused by Odile, Baja California Sur has built what is now considered a nationwide model for disaster prevention, including military coordination through Plan DNIII-A, which in 2025 deployed 3,000 Navy personnel to the state.
For residents and visitors in Los Cabos, the hotel shelter certification means that major resorts along the tourist corridor between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo are equipped with backup generators, reinforced structures, and formal protocols for sheltering guests and locals during severe weather events.
Cota Márquez said the workshops in Veracruz will inform updated protocols for the coming season. The summit’s focus on inter-agency coordination and risk scenarios comes as forecasters prepare their outlooks for 2026 Pacific storm activity.
This story was first reported by the Los Cabos municipal government at loscabos.gob.mx.