A monster storm struck Mexico's vacation paradise overnight as Hurricane Odile made landfall on the southern Baja California peninsula, directly hitting Cabo San Lucas. Odile was the strongest storm on record to make landfall in the Baja Peninsula, coming ashore over Cabo on Sunday night as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour.

Thousands of residents and tourists in Mexico's beachside towns hunkered down in shelters and hotel conference rooms as the powerful and sprawling hurricane rolled through an area that is home to gleaming megaresorts, beachfront timeshare condos, tiny fishing communities and low-lying neighborhoods of flimsy homes.

As of Monday morning, the storm was crawling up the Baja Peninsula, with its most dangerous eastern quadrant, where the storm's winds are strongest and waves are highest, affecting the entire area in a worst-case storm track scenario. The storm's wind field is large enough that tropical storm and hurricane force winds are going to affect the whole peninsula from south to north on Monday and Monday night, even though the storm is weakening.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said satellite imagery indicates Odile's center made landfall Sunday night at about 9:45 p.m. PDT near Cabo San Lucas. It said at landfall, an automated weather station near Cabo San Lucas reported a sustained wind of 89 mph with a gust to 116 mph.

Storm chaser Josh Morgerman of iCyclone wrote on Facebook that the storm was extremely violent in the Cabo San Lucas area.

Post by iCyclone.

As of 5 a.m. PT, Odile had weakened to a Category 2 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, and was moving northwest at 16 mph.

While the storm is predicted to weaken as it moves slowly northwest, the danger is far from over, and won't be confined to Mexico, either. In fact, forecasters are concerned that winds in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere will pick up moisture from the hurricane as well as another weather system lurking off the California coast, carry it across the Southwest U.S., and dump it on Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

These areas experienced deadly flash flooding last week, with Phoenix experiencing its wettest calendar day on record on September 8 after moisture from former Hurricane Norbert reached the area.

Several National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices in the Southwest, including Tucson and Phoenix, held a Twitter chat on Sunday night to communicate the threat and answer residents' questions. The Phoenix NWS office said, "Bottom line: Prepare for possibility of heavy rain & flooding this week. Might miss ur house, but best to be prepared."

It is hard to say if the effects of this storm will be as bad as Norbert. The potential is there for hvy rain, flash flooding. #OdileChat — NWS Tucson (@NWSTucson) September 15, 2014

As the storm struck early Monday, tourists sough shelter in hotels and shelters.

With howling winds whipping palm trees amid pelting rain outside, people bedded down and used magazines to fan themselves in crowded, stuffy safe rooms. Some did crossword puzzles or listened to iPhones. In one hotel near San Jose del Cabo, power went out not long after nightfall and a generator was keeping minimal lights on.

Denise Mellor, a traveler from Orange County, California, was frustrated about a lack of information about the storm and said she was learning more from her daughter back home than from hotel workers.

"It's a little bit (unsettling) that we don't have a choice but to sit in here and hope for the best," Mellor said. "So that makes me a little bit scared."

Mexican authorities evacuated coastal areas and readied shelters for up to 30,000 people.

"We are going to be hit, do not risk your life," warned Marcos Covarrubias, governor of Baja California Sur. On Sunday, police with megaphones walked through vulnerable areas in Cabo San Lucas urging people to evacuate.

"I'm leaving. It's very dangerous here," said Felipa Flores, clutching a plastic bag with a few belongings as she took her two small children from her neighborhood of El Caribe to a storm shelter. "Later on we're going to be cut off and my house of wood and laminated cardboard won't stand up to much."

Winds blow palm trees on the beach in Los Cabos, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014. Image: Victor R. Caivano/Associated Press

At least 22 airline flights were canceled. Some tourists camped out at the Los Cabos international airport hoping to get out before the storm, but the facility shut down all air operations late in the afternoon.

Children watch a movie on their laptop as tourists rest inside a shelter at a resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014. Image: Victor R. Caivano/Associated Press

Luis Felipe Puente, national coordinator for Mexico's civil protection agency, said 164 shelters had been prepared for as many as 30,000 people in Baja California Sur.

As of Monday morning, a hurricane warning was in effect from Punta Abreojos to Santa Rosalia, with tropical storm warnings in effect for much of the rest of the peninsula. Mexican authorities declared a maximum alert for areas in or near Odile's path, and ports in Baja California were ordered closed.

According to meteorologist Jeff Masters of Weather Underground, the only other major hurricane on record to strike southern Baja was Hurricane Kiko in 1989, which hit south of La Paz, Mexico as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph sustained winds.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press