Hurricane Simon Nears Mexico's Pacific Coast With 155 mph Winds and Up to 30 Inches of Rain
The storm is just short of Category 5 strength and is expected to move inland Sunday. Jalisco has closed schools and begun evacuations, and Puerto Vallarta is boarding up.
The eye of Hurricane Simon was just off Mexico's Pacific coast early Sunday and was expected to move inland later in the day as an extremely powerful storm. Simon has strengthened to 155 mph (250 kph), only just below the threshold for a Category 5, the highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The storm was about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west-southwest of Manzanillo and moving north-northwest at 6 mph (9 kph). That slow forward speed raises the risk from rain and surge, because a storm that crawls ashore lingers over the same ground.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the hurricane could bring 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain to parts of southwestern Mexico, with some areas of the states of Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco getting up to 30 inches (76 centimeters). "This rainfall will produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain," the center warned.
Forecasters also expect a dangerous storm surge along the immediate coast, near and to the east of where the center makes landfall, with large and destructive waves on top of the surge.
Jalisco state suspended classes Friday and Monday in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuating dozens of people from at-risk areas. Officials asked the tourism sector in Puerto Vallarta, a popular destination for U.S. travelers, to make sure workers and visitors were fully accommodated in shelters or safe zones.
On Saturday, convenience stores, hotels and other businesses in Puerto Vallarta were boarding up their windows, and few people were on the streets under overcast skies. "Let's hope it doesn't hit us, right? That it doesn't affect us," said Jesús Gómez, standing outside a shop handing out free samples of candied peanuts. He said he would keep working as usual until Civil Protection officials told him to close, and then shelter until the storm passed.
Ed Currie, a Canadian tourist who still had five days left on his trip to Puerto Vallarta with his wife, said the hurricane had not yet disrupted their plans. "Just stay in the hotel and look out the window hopefully," he said of what they would do. "I just don't know what to expect."
Rainfall of that scale on steep terrain is what drives the mudslide danger the hurricane center highlighted. Residents in the affected states are being guided by local Civil Protection officials, and Jalisco's evacuations and class suspensions were set up ahead of the storm's arrival.
