Hurricane Paul weakens near Mexico; Rafael to miss Bermuda

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hurricane Paul weakened as it closed in on a sparsely populated area of Mexico's Baja peninsula on Tuesday, while Hurricane Rafael was expected to miss Bermuda in the Atlantic, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Paul weakened to a Category 1 hurricane as it churned about 45 miles south of Cabo San Lazaro and it was expected to make landfall by Tuesday afternoon, the center said.

The storm was moving north at 18 miles per hour (28 km per hour) with maximum wind speeds of 90 miles per hour (150 km per hour), the center said.

"It is raining very hard, there is a lot of wind. It is not the time to go out," said Margarito Medina, a civil protection official in Comondu, the county where local officials expected the hurricane to make landfall.

Medina said shelters for 4,000 people had been readied in the area, frequented by fishermen and tourists.

The U.S. center said Paul could cause dangerous coastal waves and possible of flash floods.

The Mexican government has issued a hurricane warning from Santa Fe northward to Punta Abreojos on the country's western Baja peninsula and extended the warning to the eastern coast of Baja from San Evaristo to Mulege, the center said.

The storm is not expected to hit the tourist resort of Los Cabos. Mexico has no important oil installations along its Pacific coast.

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Rafael churned toward Bermuda on Tuesday, but was expected to pass east of the British territory and continue moving over open seas.

Rafael was centered 195 miles south of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 23 mph. It had top sustained winds of 85 mph (140 mph).

Authorities canceled several international flights as Rafael approached. The Bermuda Weather Service said the storm's center would move approximately 120 miles east of Bermuda later on Tuesday.

(Reporting By Lizbeth Diaz and Michael O'Boyle in Mexico City and Kevin Gray in Miami; Editing by Vicki Allen and Todd Eastham)