Hurricane Lorena headed toward popular Mexican tourist destination Cabo San Lucas

Hurricane Lorena is headed toward the popular Mexican tourist destination of Los Cabos and could bring heavy winds and flash flooding Friday afternoon to the resort area.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami upgraded Lorena to a Category 1 hurricane Friday morning. Reports from the afternoon indicated that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour.

Lorena was forecast to hit the southern portion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Friday afternoon. The two towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo form the municipality of Los Cabos, a tourist destination known for its beaches.

Multiple flights out of Los Cabos International Airport were canceled Friday in anticipation of the storm.

The port of Cabo San Lucas was also closed and schools were canceled in the area in order to convert the spaces into shelters.

Local security forces encouraged tourists to remain off the streets in low-lying areas and to return to their hotels. More than 750 people have arrived for refuge at 18 storm shelters in the area, according to authorities. Lorena is expected to bring life threatening waves around the Baja California peninsula.

Adverse weather had also hit Houston in recent days, where floodwaters were receding from rain caused by Tropical Depression Imelda. The storm left three dead from drowning and four days of rain resulted in roads filled with stranded cars. Houston’s 9.18 inches of rain Thursday made it the wettest September on record, according to the National Weather Service.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricane Lorena: On path to Los Cabos, flights canceled Friday