Hurricane Liza reached Category 4 strength on September 30, 1976, before slamming into the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula and parts of Sonora. It made landfall in La Paz Bay, leaving behind massive devastation. To this day—more than 43 years later—there’s still no official death toll.
Some digital archives recall that Governor Ángel César Alvarado initially reported 600 fatalities, but since then, estimates have varied widely—some sources suggest the true number could be between 2,000 and 5,000 lives lost.
The hurricane left 10,000 people displaced and caused an estimated 3 million pesos in damages.
Despite the uncertainty around the numbers, every source agrees on one thing:
Liza was “the worst disaster in the history of Baja California Sur.”
Oct. 2, 1976: Car rests on top of second in aftermath of Hurrican Liza that lashed La Paz, Mexico. Over 400 people were died in La Paz. This photo was published in the Oct. 3, 1976 Los Angeles Times.
Firsthand account from Doña Irma:
What Doña Irma remembers most is the day after the storm—October 1—when she returned home with her husband and son to their house in the Infonavit neighborhood.
“It looked like La Paz had been bombed,” she said.
On the way from her parents' house, struggling to cross the flooded Forjadores Avenue, she recalls seeing around 30 or more bodies between Morelos Secondary School and Colima Street—half-buried in mud, some thrown into the streets by raging arroyos.
“And many more weren’t that ‘lucky’,” she added.
“The current dragged them straight into the sea. No one ever found them.”