On Monday, September 28, 2026, people left their homes in Puerto San Carlos, in Mexico's Baja California Sur state, as Hurricane Polo approached the coast. October 2 came four days later. The Associated Press captured the evacuation in a photo gallery curated by AP photojournalist Ramón Espinosa in Havana, then updated the collection at 8:19 p.m. UTC on October 1, 2026.
Storm Warning on the Pacific Coast
The evacuation image is the gallery's most urgent frame. Families left Puerto San Carlos ahead of the hurricane, a reminder that when a storm bears down, ordinary households shoulder the first burden of getting themselves to safety. The base report offers no further detail on the storm's strength or its damage. What it shows is people packing up and leaving as the hurricane closed in.
Other scenes from the region took a quieter turn. On Wednesday, September 30, two days before October 2, seabirds perched on the carcass of a southern right whale off El Doradillo Beach near Puerto Madryn, Argentina. In Chile, rain near Copiapo left the Atacama Desert carpeted with flowers on Thursday, September 24, eight days before October 2.
Brazil's Campaign Trail
Politics filled a good share of the gallery. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, running for reelection, greeted supporters at a campaign rally in Sao Paulo on Saturday, September 26. That was six days before October 2. Two days later, on Monday, September 28, opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro campaigned in the same city.
The photos show an incumbent defending his record and a senator asking voters for a change. The gallery doesn't say what either man promised, and it offers no polling. It simply puts the two campaigns in the country's largest city within three days of each other.
Commerce, Community and Faith
Some images in the gallery turn to private initiative and civil society. Visitors walked the halls of ARTBO, the international art fair in Bogota, Colombia, on Thursday, September 24. In Salcedo, Ecuador, competitors raced guinea pigs on Saturday, September 26, during celebrations marking the canton’s 107th anniversary.
In Buenos Aires, residents gathered in a communal area at the Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione, a home for people with disabilities. Pope Leo XIV plans to visit the home in November. The base article gives no specific date for that visit.
The gallery also included a reveler at a Pride parade in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Friday, September 25, seven days before October 2. On Sunday, September 27, five days before October 2, a man sat on the black sand of Chame beach in Panama.
Why This Matters: The Baja evacuation reminds us that disaster response starts locally, with families, neighbors and the officials closest to them. Hurricane season tests whether a region's preparations hold up. The Brazil images matter for another reason: a contested reelection campaign in Latin America's largest country shapes investment decisions and trade ties well beyond its borders. The art fair, the cantonal celebration and the home Pope Leo XIV plans to visit show private enterprise, local tradition and faith-based institutions at work in daily life. Those institutions often carry weight without a government mandate behind them. From a center-right perspective, that's worth noting.