NU Online News Service, Aug. 31, 1:46 p.m.EDT

Tropical storm Danny never reached hurricane status over theweekend, but in the Pacific Hurricane Jimena is gearing up tobecome a major hurricane and make a rare land strike on the BajaPeninsula this week.

The National Hurricane Center said the government of Mexico hasissued a hurricane warning for the Baja California Peninsula, whichmeans hurricane conditions are possible over the next two days.

The NHC said Jimena is a very dangerous Category 4 storm on theSaffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds near 145 mph. The stormis expected to hit the Baja Peninsula by Tuesday, the servicesaid.

Guy Carpenter's CAT-i report noted that portions of Mexico havealready experienced intense flooding, rainfall and landslides insome mountain areas. Emergency shelter preparations are underwayfor 10,000 families that would be evacuated from potential floodzones in Cabo San Lucas.

A conference of the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment to be held in the resort town could be affected, thereport noted.

Where the storm may make landfall is sparsely populated,primarily consisting of small fishing villages. Mexico has no oilinstallations in the Pacific, the report added.

Risk Management Solutions said that while the storm is expectedto gain more strength over the next day, it should weaken over thenext 48 hours to a Category 3 status (sustained winds between111-130 mph).

AIR Worldwide said it estimates that the commercial replacementvalue for the Los Cabos area to be near $27 billion. Sustainedwinds above 110 mph could damage commercial structures resulting insignificant business interruption loss.

The NHC forecasts the storm will become a tropical storm byThursday.

Weather Underground's Jeff Masters said in his blog (www.wunderground.com) the stormcould eventually find its way into Arizona later this week,bringing flooding rains.

Tropical storm Danny never materialized into a hurricane overthe weekend and fizzled out off the coast of the Carolinas onSaturday, NHS said.