Police step up security in Los Cabos amid looting in the aftermath of Hurricane Odile

SAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico – Federal police on Thursday vowed to crack down on lawlessness and restore order in the hurricane-stricken resort area of Los Cabos after looting emptied store shelves and unnerved residents who worried their homes could be next.

Enrique Galindo, national commissioner of the Federal Police, said seven people, two of whom were carrying firearms, were detained on suspicion of attempted looting. He said police would aggressively enforce the law.

There were reports of gunfire overnight, and residents in Los Cabos lit large bonfires to try to protect their neighborhoods as they faced a fourth day without power or running water following the blow from Hurricane Odile. Police announced they would stop and question anyone on the streets after nightfall to make sure they had legitimate business at that hour.

"The problem is no longer the hurricane," resident David Garcia said in a radio interview. "Everything started with the looting. Not even eight hours had passed since the hurricane before people started destroying stores."

Los Cabos's heavily damaged international airport was being powered by an emergency generator from the Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, and thousands of people lined up to try to get on a flight out.

Tourism Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu said 8,000 people, including tourists and locals anxious to leave, would be airlifted out on Thursday.

Water and electricity service remained out and phone service was intermittent. CFE officials said some 2,500 power poles were toppled by Odile, which struck on Sunday as a Category 3 storm.

The roof of an auto dealership had collapsed onto a half-dozen cars, and debris was strewn about inside. Inside a waterlogged Wal-Mart superstore, there was nothing but puddles, trash, empty shelves and graffiti on the wall: "Long live crime!"

Some people lined up with 2.6-gallon jugs and at a water station. Others ventured to the top of a small hill that seemed to be one of the few places with cellphone coverage.

Civil Protection officials reported that the town of Bahia de Los Angeles in the state of Baja California was cut off because of storm damage to the only highway that serves it. A long stretch of the asphalt was completely washed out, and a tractor-trailer lay on its side in the mud.

In the Baja California Sur state capital of La Paz, where Odile hit with less intensity, Mayor Esthela Ponce said 10,000 homes were damaged. Electricity and running water had been restored to about 30 percent of customers.

After hammering the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of northern Mexico in recent days, the remnants of Odile soaked much of southeastern Arizona but spared the state's metro areas.

To the south, Hurricane Polo was off Mexico's Pacific coast and headed in the general direction of Los Cabos, although early predictions were for the center to remain offshore and sweep past on Sunday.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Polo was 150 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. It was moving northwest at 8 mph.

In the central Atlantic, Hurricane Edouard was forecast to remain far from land, although officials warned that swells could cause dangerous surf along parts of the U.S. East Coast.

In Maryland, officials said two men drowned Wednesday in strong rip currents believed to be caused by Edouard.