Tropical Storm Polo to strengthen to hurricane off Mexico's Pacific Coast

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Polo is forecast to become a hurricane off Mexico's Pacific Coast on Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, just days after a severe storm battered the Baja California peninsula. As of Tuesday afternoon, Polo was about 260 miles (418 km) south of Mexico's beach resort of Acapulco and moving in a northwesterly direction at 12 miles per hour (19 km per hour), the NHC said. It added that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, with some strengthening expected as it moves almost parallel along the southwestern coast of Mexico through Thursday. Tropical Storm Odile, which on Monday trapped thousands and smashed shops open to looters in Baja California, was located 150 miles south of Puerto Penasco in the northwest state of Sonora. It was moving north at 7 mph with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was expected to weaken rapidly as it moves inland over mainland Mexico on Wednesday afternoon. At least 26,000 foreign tourists and 4,000 Mexican tourists were estimated to be in the Baja California region, officials said on Monday. The first evacuation plane, carrying 137 tourists from Los Cabos, reached Mazatlán on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said. (Reporting by Christine Murray; editing by Bernard Orr and G Crosse)