Remnants of Tropical Storm Vance dumped more than 100 millimeters of rain — roughly 4 inches — on Los Cabos on Friday, October 30, flooding streets, overwhelming arroyos (dry riverbeds that fill fast during storms) and sweeping several vehicles into the ocean.
The hardest-hit area was the Costa Azul arroyo in San José del Cabo, where fast-moving water carried multiple parked cars out to sea. According to El Universal, residents said several of the vehicles belonged to hotel workers who routinely park near the streambed, unaware of how quickly it can rise once heavy rain starts upstream.
Which Streets and Arroyos Took the Worst Damage
Flooding wasn’t limited to one spot. Boulevard Tecnológico and parts of the Guaymitas neighborhood also saw serious water damage, according to Colectivo Pericú. At the parking lot of IMSS Clínica 38 in Guaymitas, at least 15 vehicles were buried in mud and debris, while eight more parked cars got stuck in sediment at the Santa Rosa arroyo crossing, with additional vehicles stranded after their drivers tried to push through rising water.
The flooding reached inside at least one medical facility. IMSS Clínica 6, located at Coronado and Hidalgo streets in downtown San José del Cabo, took on significant water, and the clinic’s usual pumping equipment couldn’t keep up with the volume.
One of the biggest traffic headaches came at the San José Viejo crossing near the Ley supermarket, where accumulated sand, rock and debris shut down the road for roughly an hour and a half. The federal highway agency, CAPUFE, responded by waiving tolls on the nearby cuota highway so drivers headed to Los Cabos International Airport had an alternate route while crews cleared the blockage.
Emergency Crews Respond Across the Municipality
Municipal Civil Protection, the National Guard, the Mexican Army, the Navy, municipal police and firefighters all deployed to help motorists trapped in flooded vehicles and to clear blocked roads with heavy machinery. Authorities activated an operation called Cruce Seguro — Safe Crossing — stationing emergency personnel at major arroyo crossings to keep drivers and pedestrians from attempting to cross while currents remained dangerous.
By mid-afternoon, a second band of rain moved into Cabo San Lucas, flooding the Aguajitos and Lagunitas crossings along with Tamaral street in the Chula Vista neighborhood. Local officials in Cabo San Lucas, led by delegate Karina de la O, were monitoring those areas as water levels rose. Evening classes were suspended citywide as a precaution, adding to school closures from earlier in the week covered in previous Gringo Gazette coverage of Vance-related closures.
In an unrelated but oddly timed moment, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake with an epicenter five kilometers southwest of San José del Cabo was felt across several neighborhoods around 4:34 p.m., just as emergency crews were still working multiple flood-related rescues.
Conditions Improving, But Caution Urged
By Saturday, October 31, the heaviest rain bands had shifted east toward the Gulf of California. The Capitanía de Puerto de Cabo San Lucas — the local port authority that tracks regional weather and marine conditions — reported that Vance had weakened to a remnant low and that conditions were gradually improving overnight into Saturday, though isolated light showers remained possible.
Drivers should still avoid crossing low-lying arroyo beds anywhere in Los Cabos until authorities confirm they’re clear, since water levels can rise again quickly after upstream rain even when skies look calm locally. This storm follows a string of Pacific systems that have soaked the region this season, including earlier flooding covered in Gringo Gazette’s report on Vance’s first wave of rescues and closures. Anyone with a vehicle parked near a known flood zone — Costa Azul, Guaymitas, Santa Rosa, Aguajitos or Lagunitas — should check current conditions before leaving it there overnight.
